Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets: Soon brother
by SnowGirl95
Summary: Sequel to my first Harry Potter story. It's the second year to Harry and once again Lucy is trying to keep up with her brother. But now the Chamber of Secrets has been opened and something dangerous is in the school petrifying students. And some strange voice is coming from the walls, promising death. Can Lucy protect Harry? DISCONTINUED
1. The summer

**Sorry for not posting this earlier but I've been like really busy lately. I've been working thne school started and then I had some other stories to finish. Then my old dog died and for couple days I was really out of it. But now I'm back.**

 **Enjoy and review, it makes me very happy!**

The summer

The summer went slowly for Lucy. Due to the triplets tradition of doing their homework at the last minute (which Ron immediately imitated) they had a whole summer of time to do practically anything, as long as it didn't include magic. So the triplets had taken upon themselves to lift up the mood of the house by pranking nonstop. But due to Percy locking himself into his room (who knows or cares for what reason) and Ginny being the baby of the family and so off limits (at least couple more years), their only pranking target was Ron.

But pranking him grew boring pretty quickly since his reactions weren't nearly as fun to watch as Percy's, or as creative by any stretch of imagination.

They of course played Quidditch whenever possible and forced Ron to play the keeper and to say it nicely, he wasn't nearly as good as Oliver Wood was. Far from it. So the games were usually pretty unfair to those who had Ron on their team. Maybe with little practice and some more confidence Ron would be a decent, maybe even a good keeper. Who knows?

And now Ginny had developed a phase where she spoke nonstop. She was going to Hogwarts this year and was asking million and one questions every day. And of course now that she knew that Ron was Harry Potter's best friend she grilled Ron about him, since she was probably Harry's number one fan (which Lucy knew, Harry would most likely hate since he didn't like being in the spot light he was forced to be in). The triplets tried to avoid Ginny as gently and as much as possible since they were sure their ears were going to burst due to her constant talking.

But then after a while a couple weeks or so, Ron started to send letters to Harry, and something went wrong.

At first it was fine and all, but then whenever Lucy asked Ron about Harry's reply's to his letters Ron always answered that Harry hadn't sent anything back. And that's what started to worry Lucy.

At first she thought it was Errol's fault (Errol was their aged owl and was probably the worst post owl in history). But then when she checked she noticed that Errol had indeed delivered the letters but he always came back with no answer.

And from what Lucy could see at the platform at the end of the year and from what she had heard during the year, she knew that Harry and his relatives didn't exactly see eye to eye, so naturally he'd at least write to somebody who'd be little more like him and that person would most likely be Ron.

Ron even told her that he had sent couple letters to Hermione to ask if she had heard anything but she hadn't gotten anything either and after hearing that Lucy was all but panicked.

What could have happened to her little brother?

Even Mr. and Mrs. Weasley eventually found this strange. They didn't actually think that Dursley's had _done_ anything, but they didn't like how Harry didn't reply. The twins teased Ron about how Harry was too busy being famous to write to Ron, but in secret they too were worried and of course Lucy sent them so nasty glare that would make most men go running for their mommies the twins didn't tease Ron anymore. About _that_ subject.

XXX

During the month with no reply from Harry, Lucy had started to get nightmares of what could possibly keep her brother from writing. And the nightmares only grew worse and worse every night. Sometimes she would wake up screaming, waking Ginny at the same time. Once she even did some accidental magic and their bed side lamp exploded after she woke up screaming.

Mrs. Weasley was worried about her, but Lucy always said that they were just nightmares. But she knew that even though Mrs. Weasly bought it the twins didn't. But they also didn't push it either, knowing that whatever made their best friend wake up screaming in the middle of the night had to be bad and she obviously didn't want to talk about it, since she hadn't already told them anything like she usually would if she wanted to.

So in effort to do something to help, Mrs. Weasley had started to cook a _Dreamless potion_ for Lucy every evening after she almost collapsed one day due the lack of good sleep. And Lucy gratefully took the potion and for the first time in a month she slept without nightmares (or dreams for that matter).

XXX

One day after a month since Ron had send the first letter to Harry, followed by at least a dozen more, Mr. Weasley came back after work and told everyone that Harry had gotten an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles. That worried everybody. And made the triplets head wheels spin. There was a plan forming in their scheming minds and it was a _good_ one.

They entered Mr. Weasley's shed and immediately saw the old Fort Anglia Mr. Weasley had bought from some Muggle auction some years ago, angering Mr. Weasley at the same time, since he had wasted money on an old, almost unusable, car. But then Mr. Weasley took the car and modified it so that it would fly (and move), as he did to all his muggle stuff he got angering Mrs. Weasley beyond safe, but after he explained that it wasn't against the law and that he would not use it to fly around, Mrs. Weasley let it go.

But the triples were going to use the car.

That night they told Ron about their plan and he was immediately on board with it. They were going to fly in the dark of the night to Harry's house, get him out of there and bring him to the Burrow for the rest of the summer no matter what. And nobody was going to stop them if they could help it so it was obvious that they didn't tell anyone about their plan. They would just tell everyone that Harry had come on his own to visit. Mrs. Weasley would buy it. Hopefully.

Now that the plan was in motion Lucy was more anxious than ever to know what was wrong with Harry.


	2. Getting Harry

Getting Harry

That night the triplets along with Ron slipped out of their beds and into the shed to get the car. It was pretty difficult to move quietly in the house since the floorboards were old and creaky. At least one time they had to stop, when George accidently stepped on one that made quite a noise. They heard some mumbling from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's room, but they fortunately didn't wake up. The kids must have a lucky day. Usually Mrs. Weasley had ears that would hear a pin fall to the ground in the middle of muggle Rock concert.

When they got into the shed Fred got the wheel while George and Lucy sat next to him on the front seat as Ron went to the back seat saving an empty seat for Harry.

As they started the car it made so loud noise that they were afraid that Mrs. Weasley would come running to the shed at that second and demand an answer. But to their luck nobody came and they all let out a breath of relief as Fred wheeled the car out of the shed.

Finally when they were a good mile away from the Burrow, Fred pushed the flight button and the car gave an alarming jerk, until it finally started to fly into the sky.

It took some hours to get to Harry's house but finally they saw Little Whinging and after scouting for a while they found the Private Drive where Harry lived, and boy was finding the right house difficult since all the houses looked exactly the same. Same color, mowed lawn, flower beds and a car on the driveway in front of the garage.

But eventually thanks to the big numbers on the walls (the only thing that was different on the houses on that area), they saw a number four on one of them and knew this was the right one.

It was a guess about which window was Harry's, but the bars in one of them gave them an alarming clue that it must be Harry's, although Lucy hoped it wasn't but it was.

Harry saw the light in the window and opened immediately when he saw who was out there.

''Ron! Ron, how did you…what the…?'' Harry breathed as he saw Ron and the triplets outside his barred window.

''All right Harry?'' Fred asked.

''What's been going on? Why haven't you been answering my letters! I've asked you to stay about twelve times, and then dad came home and said you've got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles…'' Ron blurted.

''It wasn't me…and how did he know?'' Harry asked confused

''He works for the Ministry. You _know_ we're not supposed to do spell's outside school…'' Ron started scolding, but,

''Bit rich coming from you,'' Harry said as he stared at the floating car.

''Oh, this doesn't count. We've only borrowed this, it's dad's, _we_ didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with…'' Ron started scolding again

''I told you I didn't. But it'll take too long to explain now. Look can you explain to them at Hogwarts that Dursley's have locked me up and won't let me come back and obviously I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry'll think that's the second spell I've done in three days, so…'' Harry started but was interrupted,

''Stop gibbering, we've come to take you home with us,'' Ron said to him.

''But you can't magic me out either,'' Harry reasoned.

''We don't need to. You forget who I've got with me,'' Ron said as he pointed towards the triplets at the front seat who were grinning like Cheshire cats.

''Tie that round the bars,'' Fred said as he threw a rope to Harry.

''If the Dursleys wake up, I'm dead,'' Harry said as he tied the rope to the bars.

''Don't worry. And stand back,'' Lucy instructed as Harry took couple steps back. Fred then wheeled the car and after couple pulls the bars came clean out of the window. Ron then, with a little help from Lucy, pulled the bars into the car.

After the bars were safely in Fred steered the car as close to the window as possible.

''Get in,'' Ron then said.

''But all my Hogwarts stuff…my wand…my broomstick…'' Harry started,

''Where are they'' Fred asked

''Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room,'' Harry answered as he pointed the door that was obviously locked from the outside.

''No problem. Out of the way Harry,'' George said as he slipped inside the room. Lucy went then in after George, followed by Fred.

''Hairpin,'' George said as he extended his hand towards Lucy. Lucy then took out a regular hairpin out of her messy bun she had made earlier that evening, and gave the pin to George. He then went to the lock and started picking it the old Muggle way.

''A lot of wizards this it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick,'' Lucy said as she looked George picking the lock.

''But we feel they're skills worth learning even if they are a bit slow,'' Fred added. They then heard a small click and the door swung open. Lucy gave a small applause to George who in turn gave a deep bow to her.

''So, we'll get your trunk. You grab anything you need from your room and hand it to Ron,'' George whispered and went outside the room.

''Watch out the for the bottom stair, it creaks,'' Harry warned as Fred and Lucy went after George.

The triplets descended the stairs, making sure not to step on the bottom one and went to the cupboard.

''Another hairpin,'' George whispered as he extended his hand to Lucy.

''What happened to the first one?'' Lucy asked.

''I broke it,'' George said as he held a hairpin that was now split in half in front of him.

''You do realize that when Mrs. Weasley asks where all my pins are, I'm going to blame you,'' Lucy said as she handed another pin to George, remembering how many her pins they had broken when they had practiced the muggle lock picking. Good thing her black hair was so messy and thick that it needed couple dozens of pins to hold it up or they wouldn't have enough pins to execute their plan.

After George had picked the lock open they quickly gathered Harry's stuff into his trunk and started heaving it upstairs as quietly as possible. About in the middle of the stairs Ron and Harry came to help them to carry the trunk to Harry's room.

Fred and Lucy climbed in to the car and started pulling the trunk in as Harry, Ron and George pushed the trunk. Finally they managed to get it in and then they helped the others to climb in as well.

''Okay, let's go,'' George whispered from the front seat. But then a loud screech came from Harry's room.

''THAT RUDDY OWL!'' They heard Uncle Vernon yell.

''I've forgotten Hedwig,'' Harry said as he jumped back inside and grabbed Hedwig's cage. Just then the light in the hall lighted up as Uncle Vernon tried to unlock the door.

Just when Harry had handed Hedwig to Ron the door opened and angry Vernon was standing on the doorway. With a loud bellow he immediately lunged towards Harry.

Fred, George, Lucy and Ron all grabbed Harry's arms as Vernon took a hold of his ankles.

''Petunia! He's getting away! HE'S GETTING AWAY!'' Uncle Vernon yelled. Just then The Weasley's and Lucy gave a gigantic tuck and Harry slipped from Vernon's grasp. As soon as Harry was in the car Ron started yelling to Fred to drive them away.

Harry then turned around and yelled his _'family'_ ,

''See you next summer!'' They all started laughing at their successful operation.

''Let Hedwig out. She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages,'' Harry said to Ron. George then handed the hairpin over his shoulder to Ron who started picking the lock on Hedwig's cage.

''Why do I have the feeling that I'm going to have to say goodbye to that pin too?'' Lucy asked as she watched Ron to pick the lock.

''Because you probably are,'' Fred said next to her.

''You know, I'm expecting a huge collection of pins as a Christmas present from you,'' Lucy said to the twins who just chuckled at her.

After a while of picking Ron finally got the lock open and Hedwig immediately swooped out of the cage and onto the night sky. After that he put the now broken pin to his pocket so that he could throw it away later.

''So, what's the story, Harry?'' Ron asked impatiently. ''What's been happening?'' That's when Harry told them about the House elf Dobby's warning, how something bad will happen at Hogwarts this year and how Harry shouldn't go back. And how Dobby smashed the pudding all over the living room at Dursleys to frame Harry for doing magic.

''Very fishy,'' said Fred finally.

''Definitely dodgy'' agreed George.

''So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?'' Lucy asked Harry.

''I don't think he could. I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall,'' Harry said as he remembered Dobby's visit back at the house. That made the Triplets and Ron look at each other, knowing how unlikely it was for a House elf to wander around without its masters approval.

''What, you think he was lying to me?'' Harry asked having noticed the looks.

''Well, put it this way, house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke,'' Fred said as he drove the car.

''Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?'' Lucy then asked.

''Yes,'' Harry and Ron said together.

''Draco Malfoy,'' Harry explained. ''He hates me.''

''Draco Malfoy? Not Lucius Malfoy's son?'' George asked knowing the name from their dad.

''Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?'' Harry said, ''Why?'' He then asked.

''I've heard dad talking about him. He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who,'' George said to Harry.

''And when You-Know-Who disappeared Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung, Dad reckons he was right in You- Know-Who's inner circle,'' Fred said as he turned to look at Harry at the backseat.

''Fred turn around, I don't want to crash on to something,'' Lucy said to him and Fred immediately turned around. But what Fred said made Harry to think. He knew Malfoy's were not the nicest family around judging by their son, who made Dudley sound like a sweet and thoughtful boy, so it would not be hard to believe them to be supporters of Voldemort.

''I don't know whether the Malfoy's own a house-elf,'' Harry said.

''Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they'll be rich,'' Lucy said as she turned around to look at him.

''Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing. But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house …'' George explained as Harry started thinking. Draco Malfoy did seem to have the best at everything, so he must have a lot of money lying around so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that he might live in a mansion of sort and have a House elf for a slave. Because that's what Dobby in his eyes was.

But was Dobby's warning real or just a prank?

''I'm glad we came to get you, anyway. I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first…'' Ron started explaining but,

''Who's Errol?'' Harry asked

''Our owl. He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery,'' Lucy explained remembering how many times they had to revivify Errol after it collapsed.

''So then I tried to borrow Hermes …'' Ron started again but,

''Who?'' Harry interrupted again.

''The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect,'' Fred said from the front.

''But Percy wouldn't lend him to me. Said he needed him,'' Ron explained. Lucy could still remember how Percy had yelled at Ron for trying to borrow Hermes. Lucy had to 'save' Ron from the situation and managed to have Percy lock himself up in his room for the rest of the day. Not that it changed his daily schedule anyway.

''Percy's been acting very oddly this summer,'' Lucy told Harry.

''And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room...I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge...You're driving too far west, Fred,'' George said looking at the compass on the dashboard. Fred then corrected their course.

''So, does your dad know you've got the car?'' Harry then asked as he looked the car they were in.

''Er, no, he had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it,'' Ron explained sheepishly as he rubbed the behind of his neck.

''What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?'' Harry asked

''He works in the most boring department. The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office,'' Ron said

''The what?'' Harry asked as he's never even heard from it.

''It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like last year, boy was that a fun one, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop before wizards could get it. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare; Mr. Weasley was working overtime for weeks,'' Lucy explained from the front seat.

''What happened?'' Harry asked as he leaned closer to Lucy.

''The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose when he tried to make the pot stop, poor fellow. Mr. Weasley was going frantic, it's only him and an old useless warlock called Perkins in the office and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up…'' Lucy said as she remembered the incident.

''But your dad, this car…'' Harry started but Fred started laughing at the idea,

''Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad,'' Fred said chuckling.

''That's the main road. We'll be there in ten minutes ...Just as well, it's getting light,'' George said as he looked out from the window. The sun was starting to rise and it was making the horizon to look like a beautiful gold and yellow painting.

Fred started bringing the car lower as Harry looked the field and the woods they were flying over. He had never been to the countryside so this was something new to him.

''We're a little way outside the village. Ottery St. Catchpole,'' George said.

''Touchdown!'' Fred yelled when they finally landed to the ground.

''Didn't know you were an American sports fan Fred,'' Lucy said sarcastically as Fred just grinned to her,

''There's a lot of things you don't know about me Lucy my dear,'' Fred said wiggling his eyebrows to her making Lucy roll her eyes at him.

''I beg to differ. I've been stuck in between you two since like forever. I think I have a pretty good picture of you two,'' Lucy replied making George laugh at Fred. They drove the car to the yard next to the old garage and Harry finally had a good look at the Weasley home.

''It's not much,'' Ron said when he noticed Harry's look.

''It's wonderful,'' Harry said in awe as he imagined Private Drive and it's neat yard, while the Burrow was the total opposite, with overgrown grass, spare tiers here and there, chickens running around and the house itself looked like it was impossible to exist. It had many stories and it looked like it would fall over due to this but it didn't because the magic that held it together. The house had five chimneys and two of them were bright red in color. It looked amazing.

They got out of the car and started walking towards the house.

''Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be all pleased to see Harry and no one need ever know we flew the car,'' Fred said their foolproof plan as they were walking.

''Right. Come on, Harry, I sleep at the…at the top,'' Ron started but turned nasty shade of green and after the other Weasley kids noticed what he was looking at, they too followed him in the choice of face color.

They were face to face with a very livid looking Mrs. Weasley.


	3. In the Burrow

In the Burrow

''Ah,'' Fred said.

''Oh, dear,'' George followed.

''We're in trouble,'' Lucy said with a sweatdrop. Mrs. Weasley had her usual flower apron on, but her mood did not match the pattern on the fabric. She had her hands on her waist and her wand was sticking out of her aprons pocket, ready to be used.

''So,'' she said with an angry expression.

''Morning, Mum,'' George said with his charming voice.

''Have you any idea how worried I've been?'' Mrs. Weasley said in a deadly whisper.

''Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to…'' Ron started but was interrupted by his mother. All of the Weasley boys were taller than Mrs. Weasley (even Lucy was taller by couple inches), yet they all ran for cover when Mrs. Weasley was mad, like now. Except now they had nowhere to run.

''Beds empty! No note! Car gone…could have crashed…out of my mind with worry…did you care? Never, as long as I've lived…you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy…'' Mrs. Weasley angrily said to them

''Perfect Percy,'' Fred muttered.

''YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!'' Mrs. Weasley yelled, prodding her finger to Fred's chest. ''You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job…'' Mrs. Weasley kept yelling at them which seemed like hours and all this time the Weasley kids kept their mouth shut after Fred's little mutter.

But after that she turned to look at Harry, who backed away just a little fearing that it was his turn to be yelled at. But,

''I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear. Come in and have some breakfast,'' Mrs. Weasley said with a calm and sweet voice. That made Harry breath out a relieved breath.

They all started to walk towards the house, the Weasley kids a little slower pace wanting to have a safe distance from angry Mrs. Weasley. They got into the house and Harry immediately started to look around as he had never seen a wizard house.

It was so different from Dursely's home. The clock didn't tell you time, but the chores one had to do. Books on the shelf were fitted for a good wizard house wife (even Aunt Petunia would find them interesting) or some other interesting subject about magic.

The kids then sat down to the long table as Mrs. Weasley kept muttering to herself about 'how reckless they were' or 'how worried she had been' or something else from the subject as she made breakfast in the kitchen.

''I don't blame you, dear,'' she assured Harry as she kept tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. ''Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really flying an illegal car halfway across the country…anyone could have seen you…'' Mrs. Weasley said as she waved her wand and the dishes started to wash themselves.

''It was cloudy, Mum,'' Fred said as he took a bite from his sausage.

''You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!'' Mrs. Weasley snapped.

''But they were starving him, Mrs. Weasley,'' Lucy tried to defend themselves. Harry was surprised that Lucy didn't call Mrs. Weasley Mom, or at least by her first name, given how long Lucy had lived there.

''And you!'' Mrs. Weasley snapped at her, just as she had snapped at Fred. But then she started buttering some toasts to Harry and gave him three at the same time.

And as Harry took a bite from his toast, Ginny ran into the kitchen and after seeing Harry she gave a small squeal and quickly ran back upstairs, confusing Harry.

''Ginny. My sister. She's been talking about you all summer, Ron explained.

''Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry,'' Fred said, but was lightly elbowed to his stomach by Lucy, who didn't want to embarrass Harry. Fred just glared at Lucy and rubbed his sore ribs as she kept eating her breakfast, making Harry smile at the familiar atmosphere. George was about to add something but after seeing his mother's deadly glare he kept his mouth shut and kept eating.

''Blimey, I'm tired,'' Fred yawned after setting his knife and fork down, ''I think I'll go to bed and…''

''You will not. It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again,'' Mrs. Weasley snapped at them

''Oh, Mum…'' George whined while Lucy put her head on the table as her wishful hopes of a couple hours of sleep flew out the window.

''And you three,'' she said as she glared at Ron, Fred and Lucy, who rose her head back up.

''You can go up to bed, dear. You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car…'' Mrs. Weasley added sweetly to Harry.

''I'll help Ron. I've never seen a de-gnoming…'' Harry said interested by the idea.

''That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work,'' Mrs. Weasley said, ''Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject …'' she added as she took a heavy book from the shelf, making all the kids groan. They all hated the know-it-all-perfect-hair-Lockhart, who had written the book.

''Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden,'' George said to her as she read the book.

Mrs. Weasley then noticed how Harry was looking at the book cover, where a blonde haired wizard was winking quite cheekily at them.

''Oh, he is marvelous. He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book…'' she said as she looked at the picture.

''Mum fancies him,'' Fred said in a very audible whisper as Lucy kept making gaging motions at the thought.

''Don't be so ridiculous, Fred,'' Mrs. Weasley said as her cheeks were getting rather pink. ''All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it,'' she warned them.

And so with yawning and muttering the Weasley kids left the table, Harry walking behind them. Harry kept talking to Ron as they walked behind the triplets and as they got in to the garden Ron picked the first gnome and showed it to Harry, who had no idea what an real life gnome looked like.

Harry was surprised how different it was from Muggle garden gnomes. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. It was nothing like the little Santa Clauses Harry had seen at their neighbors gardens back at Dursleys.

''This is what you have to do,'' Ron said as he took a hold of its ankles and started to swing it around like a lasso and then he let it go. It flew about twenty feet over the hedge.

''Pitiful. I bet I can get mine beyond that stump,'' Fred challenged.

''You're on. If I win I get to choose a card from your collection. _Any_ card,'' Lucy said threateningly. Fred looked a little uncomfortable at the idea of losing his prized card, but after a moment of thinking he shook Lucy's hand and the game was on.

At first Harry was way too gentle to the gnomes not wanting to hurt them, so he just placed the gnome outside of the hedge, resulting for it to bite him, but then,

''Wow, Harry, that must've been fifty feet,'' Lucy said in awe after Harry had thrown the gnome.

''See, they're not too bright. The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. You'd think they'd have learned by now just to stay put,'' George said as he seized six gnomes as they came out of hiding.

After a long time of throwing the gnomes there wasn't any gnomes left in the garden and the game surprisingly ended Harry as a winner. They offered him his prize, but he politely refused and Fred was happy for not having to part from any of his cards.

''They'll be back,'' Ron said as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. ''They love it here…Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny.''

Just then they heard the front door slamming shut.

''He's back! Dad's home!'' George yelled. They all ran back to the house and saw Mr. Weasley sitting on one of the chairs on the table and a fresh warm cup of tea in front of him.

'What a night. Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned…'' Mr. Weasley said as he took a sip from his tea and the kids sat around the table.

''Find anything, Dad?'' Fred asked eagerly

''All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle. There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness…'' Mr. Weasley yawned as he put his tea cup down.

''Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?'' George asked

''So that you could demolish your house trying to find them,'' Lucy said to him, making George glare at her with a small smile and the other kids snicker quietly.

''No no children, just Muggle-baiting. Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it…'' Mr. Weasley explained, ''Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking; they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face...But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe…''

''LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?'' Mrs. Weasley suddenly yelled making Mr. Weasley's eyes open in a flash.

''C-cars, Molly, dear?'' Mr. Weasley asked.

''Yes, Arthur, cars. Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly,'' Mrs. Weasley said.

''Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if…er…he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth...There's a loophole in the law, you'll find...As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't…'' Mr. Weasley tried to explain to his angry wife as the kids tried to stay as far away from this as possible.

''Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!'' Mrs. Weasley shouted, making the Weasley kids to shrink in their chairs, ''Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!''

''Harry? Harry who?'' Mr. Weasley asked confused. He looked around and as he saw Harry he jumped, ''Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about…''

''Your sons and Lucy flew that car to Harry's house and back last night. What have you got to say about that, eh?'' Mrs. Weasley shouted.

''Did you really? Did it go all right? I…I mean,'' he faltered as sparks started flying from Mrs. Weasley's eyes, ''that…that was very wrong, children…very wrong indeed.''

''Let's leave them to it,'' Ron whispered to Harry as Mrs. Weasley face was starting to turn into an alarming shade of red. "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom.''

As Ron and Harry left the table the triplets took this as their cue to leave too. They saw Harry and Ron slip into Ron's room as they went to the Twins' room. It was larger than Ron's due to there living two, once three, people.

Fred sat down to his bed as George took his and Lucy sat on the old sofa that had once served as her bed before she moved into Ginny's room and she got her own bed, since the sofa was too large to move away.

''Well, that went well,'' Lucy said to the twins.

''Well? Are you kidding me my arms will be stiff for weeks,'' Fred complained as he rotated his arms.

''Fred you say that just washing the dishes will make your arms stiff. And you know you'll be fine tomorrow,'' Lucy said. George just laughed at him. It was funny how rarely the twins made fun of Lucy, yet how many times Lucy made fun of the twins without it sounding like an insult.

They soon decided to try to mix up their pranking sets and try to find the right combination to make good ' _Wart creating potion'_ they had been working on for weeks. Their dream was one day to open up their own joke shop, but knowing how badly Mrs. Weasley reacts to their pranks in home and school, they knew she would not approve, so they kept their little secret.

They had made up so many names trying to fit in Weasley and Addison, but noting was working. Lucy many times joked to them that she just has to marry one of them so that she would be a Weasley too and that would settle their problem. And every time she said it the twins' ears and cheeks would turn into a nice shade of pink that had nothing to do with their ' _Face color changing cream_ '.

XXX

The rest of the summer went smoothly at the Weasley's. Now that Harry was safe and sound with them, Lucy's nightmares disappeared once and for all, being replaced by good and happy dreams. And luckily nobody noticed this change in the nightly schedule as that would raise some questions Lucy didn't want to answer.

Mrs. Weasley was of course pleased to have another kid to fuss over and secretly Lucy was clad that she did, knowing how little fussing Harry got back at Dursley's, who in Lucy's opinion should be hexed into the next century. Lucy of course herself teased Harry just a little, trying to make him feel more at home in the Burrow and luckily it worked. Harry was still a bit awkward at times, especially with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, but at least with the kids he was very comfortable.

Ginny of course tried to avoid Harry as she kept dropping things whenever he was around. And whenever she couldn't, her face would be shining bright red that competed with her hair. Lucy tried to guide Ginny into some conversations to get her mind of off Harry's presence, but Ginny's face just kept getting redder and redder and she couldn't form words from her mouth and she would only drop more stuff, so Lucy just gave up just to save their remaining dishes.

Then one morning,

''Letters from school,'' Mr. Weasley said as she passed the letters to Harry and Ron, ''Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry…doesn't miss a trick, that man. You three've got them, too,'' she added to the triplets, who were still in their pajamas and Lucy's black hair was at the moment defying gravity, as it stood all over the place more messier than usual, if that was even possible.

They all opened their letters and read them. It had the usual info how and when to get to the King's Cross station and what can and cannot be brought. Then there was the book list. It was almost filled with Lockhart's books. That would not be cheap.

''You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too! The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan…bet it's a witch,'' Fred said as he looked the letter over Harry shoulder. Lucy quickly pulled Fred back down and pointed at Mrs. Weasley who was glaring at him. After noticing that, Fred quickly occupied himself with his toast and marmalade.

''That lot won't come cheap. Lockhart's books are really expensive…'' George said to his parents as he read the letter.

''Well, we'll manage,'' Mrs. Weasley said, but it was clear that she was worried too.

''You do know that you could use my vault too. I'd be happy to share, since I do live here,'' Lucy said to Mrs. Weasley.

''Oh hush dear. That's your money. You need it yourself. Don't worry, as I said we'll manage,'' Mrs. Wealsey said.

''Your money?'' Harry asked Lucy.

''One my parents left me,'' Lucy said. Then Harry remembered. Lucy acted so naturally among all the Weasleys that it was sometimes hard to remember that she actually was an Addison (Potter) and adopted to the family.

''I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand,'' Mrs. Weasley said as she looked at Ginny's letter.

''Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?'' Harry asked Ginny, who immediately turned bright red and shyly nodded.

The Percy came to the kitchen already dressed, his hair smoothly combed and his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

''Morning all. Lovely day,'' he said cheerfully as he sat down. But the he immediately stood up and took an old dead looking owl from the chair he was about to sit.

''Errol!'' Ron said as took the limp owl from Percy and extracted a letter from under its wing. ''Finally, he's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys.''

Ron put Errol into the perch, but it fell down so Ron just placed it into the draining board instead. Ron opened the letter and started reading it out loud to everyone,

''' _Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there, I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl because I think another delivery might finish your one off. I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course'_ ,

''How can she be?'' Ron said in horror as he read. ''We're on vacation!''

''' _And we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley?_ _Let me know what's happening as soon as you can._

 _Love from Hermione.'_ ''

''Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too,'' Mrs. Weasley said as she started to clear the table. ''What're you all up to today?''

The children had planned to play Quidditch that day and there was a perfect spot on the hill where the Muggle's couldn't see them, as long as they didn't fly too high.

They took their brooms (Harry's Nimbus being the best one, of course) and started to walk to the hill. They had asked Percy to come too, but according to him he had something else to do.

''Wish we knew what he was up to,'' Lucy said as she held her old broom on her shoulder while they walked.

''He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L's and he hardly gloated at all,'' Fred added.

''Ordinary Wizarding Levels,'' George explained, after seeing Harry's puzzled look. ''Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame.''

''Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year,'' George said after a while.

''Yeah, five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything…'' Lucy counted. She wished Mrs. Weasley would start using her money, since she already took advantage of them as Mrs. Weasley refused to let Lucy use the money for anything else except her school stuff.

They got to the hill and divided into two teams. Lucy and George vs. Harry, Ron and Fred. It was fairly even match as Ron had some confidence issues while Fred and Harry were good and as Lucy had to be the chaser all by herself as George who was also a good player played the keeper.

They didn't use real Quidditch balls as they could fly away and they would be hard to explain to the Muggle's, so they just used some apples and an old Muggle football that was flat.

The game of course ended in the victory for Harry, Ron and Fred's team and Fred was obviously gloating about it for the whole way back to the house. And Lucy swore that if he didn't shut up when they got to the house, she would use the ' _Tongue tying candy'_ she had in her pranking kit she got from the twins as a Christmas present and _make_ Fred shut up.


	4. Diagon alley

Diagon alley

The next Wednesday Mrs. Weasley woke everybody up rather early. The triplets of course complained about it, but one nasty look from Mrs. Weasley got them to shut up. She had made couple dozen of sandwiches and after every last one of them was eaten she was satisfied to go. The kid quickly got dressed and went to the living room where Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were patiently waiting.

Mrs. Weasley took the flower bot full of Floo powder and looked inside it.

''We're running low, Arthur. We'll have to buy some more today... Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear,'' She said and offered the powder to Harry, who looked it questionably.

''W-what am I supposed to do?'' he asked nervously.

''He's never traveled by Floo powder. Sorry, Harry, I forgot,'' Ron said

''Never? But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?'' Mr. Weasley asked interested by the idea of Muggle transportation.

''I went on the Underground…'' Harry started but was interrupted,

''Really? Were there escapators? How exactly…'' Mr. Weasley started and would probably continue 'till the end of the day unless Mrs. Weasley hadn't stopped him.

''Not now, Arthur,'' Mrs. Weasley scolded, ''Floo powder's a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you've never used it before…''

''He'll be all right, Mum. Harry, watch us first,'' Fred said and took a some of the glittering powder into his hand. He then stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames. It made a loud roar and turned from normal red and orange flames to bright green ones and larger than Fred himself.

He stepped into the flames that now would not burn him and yelled,

''Diagon Alley!'' And then the flames swallowed him.

''You must speak clearly, dear,'' Mrs. Weasley told Harry as George took his share of the powder. ''And be sure to get out at the right grate…''

''The right what?'' Harry said nervously as George too disappeared from sight.

''Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly…'' Mrs. Weasley said worriedly.

''He'll be fine Mrs. Weasley. Don't worry so much,'' Lucy said as she too took a handful of the powder. She threw it into the flames and shouted her destination and like that, she was gone too.

She slides in the Floo network for a while until she sees the familiar twins waiting for her. She gets out of the fireplace and looks around and notices that they were at The Leaky Cauldron. She quickly dusts herself from the soot and cinders that stuck on her clothes and hair during the ride.

''Well that was fun,'' she says to the twins while trying smooth disheveled her hair.

''Yeah, too bad it's always so short ride,'' George says as tries to brush his hair from the soot and Fred was trying to clean his face that had some cinders on it. Soon Mr. Weasley emerges from the fireplace.

''Wasn't Harry supposed to be next after me?'' Lucy asks him.

''Oh dear, he didn't arrive?'' Mr. Weasley asks.

''No,'' the triplets say together.

''Oh dear, he didn't get lost did he. Oh, what will Molly say? Or his guardians,'' Mr. Weasley starts to fret as Ron comes out of the fireplace.

''Where's Harry?'' He asks.

''Gee, I don't know Ron. Maybe the fireplace swallowed him,'' Fred said sarcastically as Mr. Weasley kept muttering to himself. Then Percy comes out of the fireplace looking as proper as ever.

''I believe that he's fine. Maybe he got out on the wrong fireplace. You know how possible it is for a first-timer to get lost in there,'' Lucy said, not paying attention to Percy as she remembered how Fred got into the wrong fireplace when they first travelled by the Floo.

Just then Mrs. Weasley emerged from the fireplace holding Ginny's hand.

''Everyone here?'' She asks.

''Harry probably got out at the wrong fireplace,'' Ron answers to her.

''What? Oh my, hopefully not too far. Come on then. We must go to the alley if Harry did come out at some other fireplace so that he can find us. Oh dear me,'' she says as she frantically starts to rush everybody to the back door of the pub.

They get out of the pub to the back alley and Mr. Weasley takes out his wand and taps the right brick on the brick wall. The wall then opens and the family quickly walks to the alley. The alley was already full of people even though it was still an early morning.

''Trying to find Harry from this is like trying to find a hairpin from my hair,'' Lucy says as she looks at the crowd

''You mean like when you did that sleek hair up do at Percy's birthday when you were ten and you kept finding those pins even two weeks after the birthday,'' Fred asks.

''Exactly,'' Lucy said as she recalls the nasty event. Her hair did not thank her for that.

''We should probably go to the Gringotts. I'm sure Harry will head there too first as he too needs money,'' Percy says to them.

''That is actually not a bad idea. Good thinking Percy,'' Lucy says as if that was the first smart thing Percy says and that makes the twins laugh.

After a long time of pushing and heaving past all of the people on the alley they finally got close to the bank and the first thing they noticed was Hagrid's large form in front of it. Then they noticed two smaller forms next to him. It was Harry and Hermione. They quickly walked to them.

''Harry. We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far,'' Mr. Weasley panted, "Molly's frantic, she's coming now…''

''Where did you come out?'' Ron asked.

''Knockturn Alley,'' Hagrid said grimly.

''Excellent!'' Fred, George and Lucy said together, imagining how many times they had wanted to go there, but were never allowed.

''We've never been allowed in,'' Ron voiced the triplets' thoughts.

''I should ruddy well think not,'' Hagrid said firmly to them. Just then Mrs. Weasley came to them holding Ginny by one hand.

''Oh, Harry…oh, my dear…you could have been anywhere,'' Mrs. Weasley said as she took out a large clothes brush from her hand bag and started sweeping the remaining soot that was left on Harry's clothes. Mr. Weasley takes Harry's broken classes and with a one tap they were as good as new.

''Well, gotta be off,'' Hagrid says and Mrs. Weasley clings to his arm and starts thanking him over and over again for finding Harry. ''See yer at Hogwarts!'' he finally yells and leaves them.

They started to go to the Gringotts and Harry started talking to Ron and Hermione,

''Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes? Malfoy and his father.''

''Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?'' Mr. Weasley asks.

''No, he was selling,'' Harry answered.

''So he's worried. Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something,'' Mr. Weasley says

''You be careful, Arthur. That family's trouble. Don't go biting off more than you can chew,'' Mrs. Weasley warns.

''So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?'' He asks but is disturbed when they see Hermione's parents, ''But you're Muggles. We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly, look!'' He starts to half yell

''I feel so embarrassed right now. He's like a kid in a candy store'' Lucy says and the twins can't do anything but just nod at her statement.

''Meet you back here,'' Ron says to Hermione as the Weasley family and Harry are escorted to the underground vaults by a goblin. They firstly rode the trains, which made Percy feel very sick, to the Weasley vault. Harry and Lucy both felt terrible when they saw the content of the vault. A small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon and Mrs. Weasley after searching every corner of the vault sweeps everything into her bag.

Next one was Lucy's vault. She always felt terrible when they opened it and saw inside of it. It was full of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. She quickly filled her money bag with enough money to last the next year and closed the vault not wanting to see the egoistic inside. She prayed every year to share the content, but Mrs. Weasley was obstinate.

Then they got to Harry's vault and no surprise there that since they had the same parents Harry had just about the same amount of money in there as Lucy did. And of course Harry tried to act just as quickly as Lucy did, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

Back at outside the triplets noticed their friend Lee Jordan in the crowd, Percy wanted to go search for a new quill so Mrs. Weasley agreed to let them go their own ways.

''We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks. And not one step down Knockturn Alley!'' Mrs. Weasley yelled as she went with her daughter to shop Ginny's school supplies.

The triplets ran to their friend, who was with his father. Lee was watching the closest window, where some old junk was being put on to display as his father talked to his friend, who was wearing deep burgundy robes and a matching hat.

''Yo, Lee what's up?'' George asked when they got to Lee.

''Hey you three. Not much, just finishing my shopping here. Just bought the books,'' Lee says to them as he shows his full shopping bags.

''All Lockhart's,'' Lucy said, not even bothering to hide her disgust.

''You tell me. Dad only said that it was not fair that we had so many so expensive books as school books. I mean, I read one once and it only praised how marvelous the writer was,'' Lee said

''Yeah, the guy is totally full of hot air nobody bothered to let out once he was full,'' George said making them all laugh.

''Hey, you want to come check out the newest pranking material,'' Fred asked.

''Yeah sure. Hey dad,'' Lee said making Mr. Jordan to turn towards him, ''I'll go to The Gambol and Japes with these guys. I'll meet you at The Leaky Cauldron in about…'' Lee started but looked at the triplets asking for the time limit.

''One hour,'' Fred filled him in.

''In one hour,'' Lee repeated to his dad.

''Okay sport, you know the drill. No buying anything dangerous or illegal. And if you can't afford it on your own, you can't have it. Understood?'' Mr. Jordan said.

''Yes, sir,'' Lee said and they were on their way to the joke shop. They tried to sneak past the crowd of people as they approached the shop. They finally got to the shop that didn't have that many customers at the moment, since everybody was buying their school stuff first.

''Look at this guys,'' Lee says as he takes out a ' _Hag nose for a day, kit'_.

''Awesome,'' The triplets say together.

''Hey, check this out,'' Lucy suddenly gets their attention as she points the fake brook at the top of the self. It looked like a normal broom but it supposedly only flew backwards and at a very slow pace. It unfortunately was too expensive to buy and try to trick Ron with it.

''Hey, we got to buy this one together,'' Fred said as he pulls out a bottle of ' _The slow working hiccup potion_ '.

''If we made our own candy and put some of this inside of them this would make a perfect pranking sweet. Only a couple drops or so and for about a half hour to hour the victim would feel uncomfortable hiccups that would prevent him from speaking normally and would not go away until the potion wears off,'' Lucy said after she had read the instructions of the bottle.

''Yeah I know. But it's a little expensive to buy on my own, so if we split the cost we could buy it,'' Fred said. They looked at each other and,

''Let's do this,'' the triplets say.

''You know how creepy it is when you talk like you were an actual triplets?'' Lee says. The triplets just grin and nod as they buy the potion.

After buying the potion they started to stock up their usual pranking stuff for the upcoming school year when Harry, Ron and Hermione stumbled in.

''Harry, welcome! Decided to acknowledge your inner prankster, huh,'' Lucy asked when they saw the three second years.

''No, just looking. I didn't get to see this place the last time I was here,'' Harry said.

''You hear that lads? The boy needs a full tour of the place,'' Lucy called the twins and Lee. After hearing that Fred and George immediately showed Harry the basic pranking kits and Lee showed him the more delicate merchandise that needed a little more experience to be used properly.

During the tour Fred, George, Lucy and Lee gathered their usual goods from the shop. _Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks_ and some more useful stuff.

Harry, Ron and Hermione decided not to buy anything and left empty handed while the triplets and Lee stayed to pay their big haul.

XXX

When they finally get out of the shop they say bye to Lee and promise to see him at the train at September 1st. They go to their separate ways as Lee goes to meet his father at the pub so that they can go home and the triplets go to the Flourish and Blotts to get their books.

They get to the shop and see how full it is. Apparently the pompous Gilderoy Lockhart was there to sign his newest book and that got people moving. The triplets tried to get their books as fast as possible so that they didn't have to meet the man himself, but Mrs. Weasley forced them to stay.

Soon Harry, Ron and Hermione joined the group and then the Lockhart decided to show up. He wore ridiculous forget-me-not blue robes and a matching pointed hat on his curled hair and was showing his pearl white teeth as he smiled widely, making all the women in the shop swoon. As the triplets saw him they immediately made small gaging noises.

They small man was jumping around Lockhart and taking pictures but the full shop limited his angle of view.

''Out of the way, there. This is for the Daily Prophet…'' he snapped at Ron.

''Big deal,'' Ron said as he rubbed the foot where the photographer had stepped on. Ron's remark got the attention of Lockhart himself and of course he saw Harry next to Ron.

''It can't be Harry Potter?'' He practically yelled. The crowd immediately parted, making way to Lockhart, who marched to Harry and pulled him to the front. The crowd immediately started to applaud as Lockhart shook Harry's hand and the photographer took a couple of dozen pictures more.

Harry tried to sneak out of Lockhart's grip, but he pulled Harry back at the front.

''Ladies and gentlemen,'' Lockhart said loudly. ''What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time! When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography, which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge,'' he said and shook Harry's hand that didn't held the thick book as the crowd applauded.

''He had no idea, that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!'' Lockhart finished as the crowd started applauding even more.

''This year is going to be very long,'' Lucy mutter to the twins.

''Yeah,'' they agreed feeling very glum.

''Yet extremely entertaining,'' Lucy said as she held her joke bag higher to the twins to see. Their faces immediately merged the mischievous grins they were known about.

They quickly bought their books and tried roam out of the shop between the many customers, when they saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny face to face with Draco Malfoy.

''Ron! What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside,'' Mr. Weasley said.

''Well, well, well, Arthur Weasley,'' Mr. Malfoy, who just entered the shop, said.

''Lucius,'' Mr. Weasley said, nodding coldly to Mr. Malfoy.

''Busy time at the Ministry, I hear. All those raids ... I hope they're paying you overtime?'' Mr. Malfoy said. He took an old school book from Ginny's cauldron and looked it.

''Obviously not. Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?'' He sneered as Mr. Weasley turned bright red.

''We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy,'' Mr. Weasley shot back.

''Clearly. The company you keep, Weasley...and I thought your family could sink no lower…'' Mr. Malfoy started as he looked Mr. and Mrs. Granger, but didn't get to finish his sentence when Mr. Weasley lunged at him.

There were mixed cheers in the air. The triplets were all about that Mr. Weasley would land a couple good bunches on Malfoy senior, while Mrs. Weasley was shouting for her husband to stop and the shop keeper was trying to get the two fighting man out of his shop.

But finally Hagrid appeared from between the bookshelves and pulled the men apart from each other. Mr. Weasley was now sporting a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had a nice black eye.

''Here, girl, take your book. It's the best your father can give you,'' Mr. Malfoy said putting the book back into the cauldron as he pulled Draco with his as they left.

''Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur. Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that. No Malfoy's worth listenin' ter, bad blood, that's what it is. Come on now, let's get outta here,'' Hagrid said as he pulled Mr. Weasley up.

They immediately left the shop as the customers were starting to stare and just when they got outside did Mrs. Weasley start rambling to her husband,

''A fine example to set for your children…brawling in public…what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought…''

''He was pleased," Fred said.

''Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report, said it was all publicity,'' Lucy added with quite nasty sneer.

They got the Leaky Cauldron where they said goodbye to the Granger's who left to the Muggle street and Mrs. Weasley had to stop Mr. Weasley from asking anything about Muggle things. After the Granger's had left, the Weasley's and Harry left by using the Floo powder. Harry was sure that this was not his favorite way of traveling.


	5. September 1st

September 1st

Rest of the summer went too quickly for their liking. And before they knew it, it was the last day of summer vacation and the next day they would board the train to Hogwarts to start yet another school year.

That evening Mrs. Weasley had prepared a sumptuous dinner that consisted all Harry's favorites. Little did Harry know that it was Lucy who had filled Mrs. Weasley in about his favorite dishes. The triplets did of course liven up the dinner by firing couple of _Filibuster fireworks._ The fireworks filled the room with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. And after the delicious cup of Mrs. Weasley's hot chocolate that would make even Professor Dumbledore's mouth water, it was time to bed.

The next morning Mrs. Weasley woke them up before dawn and started rushing everybody to hurry up. Lucy was walking around with only one sock in her foot, her T-shirt on backwards, her hair messy once again and a toast in her mouth. The twins were not far behind, though they hadn't yet managed to put on their shirts. The triplets would never get used to the early mornings while as Mrs. Weasley was running around trying to find some spare socks and quills and packing them into their trunks.

But when they had finally packed all their things (and woken up properly) they were sitting in the car ready to leave to the station.

''Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they?'' Mr. Weasley said to his wife when they all sat surprisingly comfortably, even though there were eight people in the small looking car, but Mr. Weasley had probably done some magic to make in larger on the inside. ''I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?'' He finally added when they finally left the yard.

They hadn't gotten far when George cried how he forgot his box of _Filibuster fireworks_ so they had to go back to get them. Then after that Fred noticed how he forgot his broomstick and they once again had to go back. After that they had almost reached the highway, when Ginny shrieked that she'd left her diary. By the time she had clambered back into the car, they were running very late, and tempers were running high.

Mr. Weasley was watching his watch worriedly, ''Molly, dear…''

''No, Arthur,'' Mrs. Weasley said

''No one would see. This little button here is an Invisibility Booster I installed, that'd get us up in the air. Then we fly above the clouds. We'd be there in ten minutes and no one would be any the wiser…''

''I said no, Arthur, not in broad daylight,'' Mrs. Weasley said. When they finally reached the station it was already a quarter to eleven. Mr. Weasley got their trollies as they went to the platform between nine and ten.

''Percy first,'' Mrs. Weasley rushed as Percy went through the barrier followed quickly by Mr. Weasley and after him the triplets. They got to the platform of nine and three-quarters and Mr. Weasley kept hurrying them to get on the train. They said goodbyes to Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley, who had gotten though the barrier with Ginny after the triplets. She warned them from getting any trouble and looking after Ginny. They promised to look after Ginny, but tactically left out the trouble part. They then got into the train just when they heard the loud whistle that indicated that the train was about to leave. They waved goodbye and then the train was out of the station.

Ginny found one compartment where some other nervous first years were and the triplets left to look for Lee Jordan. They found him from the end of the train, saving a free compartment for them.

''There you are. I was starting to thinking you wouldn't show up,'' Lee said.

''Sorry. But these guys forgot their stuff so we had to go back couple times,'' Lucy said.

''Hey! Ginny forgot her diary too,'' Fred tried to reason.

''Yes but this is Ginny's first year. She has a right to be nervous and forget things,'' Lucy said. They settled with that and started to share summer memories. Lee had apparently gone to visit some of his family members in Spain and had had a nice time there as they lived near the beach. He even said that he learned how to surf the Muggle way.

After the trolley lady had gone and Lee and Lucy had bought their share of sweets, Hermione popped to visit.

''Hey, have you seen Harry or Ron?'' She asked.

''They aren't with you?'' Lucy asked as she swallowed her chocolate frog.

''No. I've been trying to find them awhile now,'' Hermione responded.

''Maybe they're in some other compartment. We did come almost late so maybe they didn't find you and just settled with some already full compartment,'' Fred offered.

''Yeah, maybe. Just tell them to find me if you do see them,'' she said.

''Will do,'' George said back to her as she left.

''Weird, you think they're okay?'' Lucy asked with a worried voice.

''Yeah, I'm sure they are. We did come pretty late so they must have had a hard time finding a place to sit so the first one they found they probably took,'' Fred said encouraging. Lucy just nodded to that.

The rest of the train ride was spend by playing some card games, exchanging new pranking ideas and Quidditch tactics for the upcoming season. When it was starting to get dark, Lucy once again slipped from the compartment to give the boys some privacy to change into their school robes, while she went to change in the bathroom. After changing into her robes she looked her hair in the mirror and it was once again a huge mess. She tried to smooth it down a bit, but it didn't really work so she just let it go. In days like this she really wished that she would have inherited her mother's smooth straight hair.

She then got back into the compartment to see that the boys had finished changing and were now in their Gryffindor robes. A bit later the train pulled to the Hogsmeade station and everybody got out. They went to the carriage that pulled them to the castle and after getting there they almost ran to the Great Hall, ready to begin their feast.

After the new first years had been sorted (Ginny was a Gryffindor) the feast begun. On the half way the feast a new rumor was going around the tables.

Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had flown a car into Hogwarts and crashed it to the Whomping Willow.

''So that's where they were,'' Lucy said not feeling that worried anymore. Surely the death or injury of Harry Potter would be more interesting news than the fact that he had flown a car. So since the rumor was the flying car, Harry and Ron had to be more or less okay. And since Lucy hadn't felt any pain in any part of her body, she knew Harry was uninjured and Ron was most likely too.

''Better question, why didn't they invite us with them?'' George said.

''Yeah,'' Lucy and Fred then agreed. Fred had been the driver of the car when they had rescued Harry and every time they had stolen the car and flown it without Mrs. Weasley's knowledge, so Fred probably wouldn't have crashed it like the boys had.

''We're just going to ask them, won't we lads?'' Lucy asked the twins.

''Oh yeah,'' the twins immediately agreed. After the feast was over and the final traces of the delicious desserts disappeared, Professor Dumbledore gave his usual speech how the forest was forbidden for a reason and how Mr. Filch had once again added some other things to his long list of Forbidden items in the halls and some more like Quidditch stuff and introduced Lockhart to students as their new teacher. Some students apparently were his fans and the rest were not judging by the applauds he got. Then Dumbledore rushed everyone out and back into their own Common rooms.

The triplets and Lee practically ran up to the seventh floor to wait Harry and Ron to hear an explanation of how and why they flew the car and why weren't they invited to go with them. They got into the common room and stood there waiting, but so were other Gryffindor's as well. It seemed that they weren't the only curious ones.

But when they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione climb through the Portrait hole all the Gryffindor's started clapping at them and some pulled Harry and Ron inside. Lee was the first one to open his mouth though,

''Brilliant! Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years…''

''Good for you,'' one fifth year student said as he patted Harry's back. The triplets then pushed their way through the crowd to be in front of them,

''Why couldn't we've come in the car, eh?'' They asked feeling a little displeased by Harry and Ron. Ron was starting to turn very red and Harry suddenly noticed very determined Percy and knew that he was not going to congratulate them as the rest of the students had. So Harry nudged Ron to his ribs and pointed at where Percy was trying to push his way through the crowd. They immediately started walking towards their dormitory.

''Got to get upstairs, bit tired,'' Harry said and everybody gave them way to go as they left very fuming Percy to the common room.

''You think mum's going to be mad at them,'' George asked

''Well let's see: they stole the car without telling her, flew it across England, landed into a violent tree that almost crushed them, most likely got into detention…'' Lucy counted with her fingers as the twins looked at her.

''Yep, they're dead,'' Fred said as the other two nodded their heads.


	6. School, Quidditch and voices

**I'm honestly a bit disappointed that nobody has Reviewed to me about this story. I'd like to know what you think,**

 **So Review!**

School, Quidditch and voices

The next day Lucy woke up as the rest of her dormitory's girls left to go have some breakfast. She quickly looked at her clock on her nightstand and noticed how much it actually was. She immediately jumped out of her bed, but managed to get tangled into her covers and hit her nose to the floor as she fell from the bed. She got up from the floor rubbing her poor nose and threw the covers messily over her bed, and in a record time she was in her school robes, had brushed her teeth, tried to do something to her hair to make it look decent and run down to the common room hoping to find the twins there waiting for her.

But to her surprise (and annoyance) the twins weren't in the common room. After seeing this she just blew some of her black hair away from her face as she walked into the bathroom to get her two buckets she had asked the house-elf Willy to leave out for her during her first year in Hogwarts.

She filled the buckets with cold water and walked into the twins' dormitory. She opened the door and as she had suspected there laid both the twins and Lee still in deep sleep, loud snores coming from their mouths. Fred was lying on his stomach his hands hanging from both sides of the bed, George was lying on his back, but his blanket had fallen almost entirely off of the bed as had his pillow and Lee had somehow managed to get his head hanging off of one side of the bed while his feet were hanging from the other side.

Lucy just rolled her eyes as she stood between the twins' bed and poured the water over them. The twins immediately jumped screaming out of their beds, waking Lee, who did a nice somersault when fell from his bed due to his surprise from the shouts.

''Good morning sleeping beauties, sorry to wake you, but the prince already left,'' Lucy laughed twirling the buckets in her hands as the twins glared at her while wiping their wet faces to their blankets. Lee was sitting next to his bed holding his heart as if he had just had a heart attack while the twins rose from the ground where they had fallen.

''Can you ever wake us like normal people?'' George asked.

''I have tried and found it useless since you all sleep like rocks. Now hurry up, I'm hungry and we don't want to be late on our first day. We have plenty of days to be late later on the year,'' Lucy said as she left the dormitory to give the boys some privacy to change.

Lucy walked back into the common room and in less than ten minutes the annoyed twins and Lee were walking down the steps. They left the common room and headed to the Great Hall to get their breakfast. When they got to the hall they sat down into the Gryffindor table couple seats away from Harry, Ron and Hermione and started to eat (devour) their food.

Soon the post owls stared to fly around the Great Hall bringing to the kids their forgotten school stuff or letters. They also saw how an old owl landed into Hermione's jug, spraying her, Ron and Harry with milk and feathers.

''Errol!'' Ron yelled as he recognized the owl. ''Oh no,'' he then said as he saw the letter under Errol's wing.

''It's all right, he's still alive,'' Hermione said as she prodded Errol gently with the tip of her finger.

''It's not that…it's that,'' Ron said as he pointed the bright red envelope next to the owl. The triples and Lee immediately, along with Ron and Neville, who was sitting next to them, tried to get as far away from the letter as possible while not falling from their seats, while Harry and Hermione didn't understand their behavior.

''What's the matter?'' Harry asked feeling confused.

''She's…she's sent me a Howler,'' Ron said faintly.

''You'd better open it, Ron,'' Neville instructed him in a timid whisper, but the triplets and Lee could still hear him, ''It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and…'' he gulped quite loudly ''…it was horrible.''

''What's a Howler?'' Harry asked.

''Something you better wish never to receive,'' Lucy said as she, like Ron, was looking at the Howler with a horrified face.

''Open it,'' Neville urged Ron, ''It'll all be over in a few minutes.'' Ron took the envelope with shaking hands and started to open it while the triplets, Lee and Neville all put their hands into their ears, but that unfortunately didn't block out the booming voice.

''STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE…'' Mrs. Weasley's voice, that had been enchanted to yell hundred times louder than normal human lungs could possibly manage, was shouting at Ron. Everybody in the Great Hall had turned towards the sound to see who had been the unfortunate one to receive the Howler, while Ron sank in his chair as low as he could possibly get without hiding under the table.

''…LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED…'' The voice boomed in the Hall and even though the triplets had their ears covered up they could hear all the words as if somebody was yelling right next to their ears.

''…ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!'' Then the letter burst into flames and turned into ashes while Ron was still holding it. The triplets knowing that the voice was gone removed their hands from their ears feeling just slightly sorry for Ron.

After the letter was gone the usual babble of the Hall continued. The triplets looked Ron for a while and then continued eating. Ron _must_ have guessed that he would get some form of talk from Mrs. Weasley just for taking the car. The rest what he and Harry had done was just a bonus.

They then saw Professor McGonagall handing out their schedules and as they looked at theirs they saw how they had double class of Potions, then History of Magic and finally for their relief class of Charms.

They finished their breakfast and started to head to the dungeons where the Potions class was being held.

''I wish that this time I wouldn't get a blasted cold,'' Lee complained as they walked down the stairs. It was well known fact that the dungeons were cold, especially during winter times and the students preferred to stay close to their cauldrons to get at least a little bit of warmth in the cold class room. Whose great idea it had been to hold any classes in the dungeons, they had no idea or they'd be pranking that person into the next week.

After their first Potion class and failing miserably in their attempt to create a working _Poison Antidote,_ they were on their way to predicted boring class of History of Magic. It was the only class that was taught by a ghost and his voice could get anybody to fall asleep in less than five minutes.

The triplets tried to stay awake during the class by going through their newest pranking ideas, but Professor Binns' apathetic speech of the Goblin Rebellions lulled them to sleep and before they knew it the bell rang telling them that the class was over and that it was time for lunch.

During the lunch hour they pranked Mr. Filch, who was scrubbing some of the mud that some students had brought inside, by turning the mud rock hard and so that it sticks to the floor, making Filch very angry and they saw how he took a chisel out of his tool bow and started hammering the mud muttering curse words about misbehaving students while he did.

After lunch they headed to the Charm class where the cheerful Professor Flitwick was already waiting for them. During that class they were supposed to learn the basic theory of the Summoning Charm. And if they were quick learners they might start practicing them before October.

After the class and uneventful dinner the triplet and Lee just went to their Common room and did some basic pranking tricks to entertain their tired House mates and after almost three hours show they were all tired and just fell into bed in deep sleep.

XXX

The following days went pretty normally for the triplets. Except they, along with the rest of the school, noticed what a phony Gilderoy Lockhart actually was. He didn't teach anything in his class, just read some of his so called achievements and bored the students to tears, except some girls who apparently fancied him and making Lucy gag just for the idea of fancying Lockhart.

The triplets did prank him trying to humiliate him thoroughly, but somehow every time he tripped or did anything embarrassing in front of a crowd he'd say it was somebody else's fault and he was just helping or some other puny excuse. So it was no surprise to anybody that he received a lot of scorn from the students and some of the teachers as well. Especially from those he blamed for his mistakes.

Then came the first Saturday and Lucy was gently awoken at six in the morning by Angelina, a fellow Quidditch player for Gryffindor.

''Mhwat?'' Lucy managed to mumble as she looked the one who dared to wake her, ''Angelina what are you doing up at this hour?'' Lucy asked.

''Oliver wanted to start early. Now hurry up and get dressed while I go and wake Katie,'' Angelina said as she went out of their dormitory to wake up Katie from the other. Lucy lazily threw her covers away from her as she started getting dressed.

She then walked little wobbling to the bathroom and looked herself in the mirror. She could wake the dead with this look. Her eyes looked very dull green as she still hadn't fully woken up, she had nice bluish bags under her eyes due to her interrupted sleep and her hair looked like some little animal had run a few laps in it.

Lucy took her hair brush and brushed it a few times until it looked like her normal hair mess and then put it into a pathetic excuse of a ponytail. She then brushed her teeth and after dressing into her Quidditch robes started walking, still half asleep, towards the Quidditch pitch on the grounds.

She got into their changing room where Oliver Wood, their captain, had wanted to give a quick briefing about the next season. Angelina and Katie were already in the changing room and were sitting next to each other and looked to be just as much asleep as Lucy was. Lucy sat down in the back so that she could lean into the wall while Wood was standing excitedly in the front.

Then the twins appeared into the room looking even more asleep than Lucy was and that was saying something. They both had unfocused eyes and messy hair that could almost rival Lucy's. They sat down next to Lucy, but immediately their eyes glazed over as they were probably hoping to fall asleep while sitting.

Then finally, Harry was the last one to come in and he didn't look to be any more awake than the rest of the team (excluding Wood) was.

''There you are, Harry, what kept you?'' Wood asked briskly. ''Now, I wanted a quick talk with you all before we actually get onto the field, because I spent the summer devising a whole new training program, which I really think will make all the difference...'' Wood continued as he took out a large diagram of a Quidditch field, on which were drawn many lines, arrows, and crosses in different colored inks. He took out his wand and tapped the board, and the arrows began to wiggle over the diagram like caterpillars.

And as Wood explained his new tactics, plans, etc. Fred's head managed to fall on Lucy shoulder as he started snoring while he slept. Lucy had half mind to join Fred as she laid her head over Fred's in hopes of getting sleep. To her surprise the position was not half bad.

Lucy noticed that she had actually fallen asleep, as she was woke by a sharp,

''So,'' Wood said, startling everybody awake from their dreamlands, ''is that clear? Any questions?''

''I've got a question, Oliver,'' George said as he yawned, ''Why couldn't you have told us all this yesterday when we were awake?'' Wood did not seem to be pleased by this question.

''Now, listen here, you lot,'' he said, glowering at them all. ''We should have won the Quidditch cup last year. We're easily the best team. But unfortunately, owing to circumstances beyond our control…'' Wood said, everybody remembered how Harry had been in the Hospital Wing during their last game, which they lost fantastically because they were missing their Seeker.

''So this year, we train harder than ever before...Okay, let's go and put our new theories into practice!'' Wood declared as he took his broomstick and led the tired and yawing team out of the room.

As they walked outside they noticed how the sun had already risen up telling them that it was most likely close to seven thirty by now. Lucy saw how Harry talked to just arrived Ron and Hermione before mounting his broom.

Lucy quickly followed her brother's example and joined him in the air, where he and the triplets held a small race together.

''What's that funny clicking noise?'' Fred asked as they suddenly head a loud clicks going on in the stadium. The looked there and saw a mousy brown haired, small first year student taking pictures of them.

''Look this way, Harry! This way!'' he cried shrilly while taking the pictures.

''Who's that?'' Lucy asked, while brushing some of her hair away from her face.

''No idea,'' Harry obviously lied about Colin's identity as his fan and speeded up so that he was a far away from the boy as possible.

''What's going on?'' Wood said as he flew next to them. ''Why's that first year taking pictures? I don't like it. He could be a Slytherin's spy, trying to find out about our new training program.''

''He's in Gryffindor,'' Harry said quickly.

''And the Slytherins don't need a spy, Oliver,'' George suddenly said.

''What makes you say that?'' Wood asked.

''Because they're here in person,'' George said, pointing down to the ground where indeed the entire Slytherin team was in their green robes and broomsticks in hands.

''I don't believe it!'' Wood hissed in outrage, ''I booked the field for today! We'll see about this!'' He said as he flew down to the ground the rest of the team following.

''Flint!'' Wood yelled at the Slytherin Captain who was way bigger than Wood. ''This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!''

''Plenty of room for all of us, Wood,'' Flint said as he smiled his troll smile.

''But I booked the field! I booked it!'' Wood shouted in rage.

''Ah, but I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. _'I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker.'_ '' Flint read the note in his hands.

''You've got a new Seeker? Where?'' Wood then asked. The Slytherin team parted giving way to their newest member, a small blond haired boy, Draco Malfoy.

''Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?'' Lucy asked as she saw the smug boy.

''Funny you should mention Draco's father,'' Flint said as the whole Slytherin team smiled more broadly. ''Let me show you the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team.'' The entire team then held their broomstick so that everybody could see the newest brand available. Nimbus Two Thousand and One, next broom from Harry's Nimbus.

''Very latest model. Only came out last month,'' Flint said, flicking a speck of dust from the end of his own. ''I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps…'' he smiled nastily at Fred, George and Lucy, who were clutching Cleansweep Fives in their hands ''…sweeps the board with them.'' None of the Gryffindor team had anything to say to that since, as much as they hated to admit it, it was true that the Cleansweeps were becoming more and more unused brooms since they were so old models.

''Oh, look, a field invasion,'' Flint suddenly said as Ron and Hermione came to the field.

''What's happening?'' Ron asked as he stood next to Harry. ''Why aren't you playing? And what's he doing here?'' He said pointing towards Malfoy.

''I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley,'' Malfoy said smugly. ''Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team.'' Ron looked at the broom and swallowed loudly. ''Good, aren't they? But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them,'' Malfoy said as the rest of his team started laughing.

''At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,'' Hermione said sharply, defending her team. ''They got in on pure talent.''

''No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood,'' Malfoy spat. And that statement made all of the Gryffindor's shiver in rage.

''How dare you, you spoiled excuse of a human being!'' Lucy yelled and would have probably punched Malfoy if Angelina and Katie had not held her back, although it was clear than they too would have wanted to hurt Malfoy in worst ways possible. The twins had no one to hold them back to, so Flint had to pull Malfoy behind him so that he would not have been mauled by the twins.

''You'll pay for that one, Malfoy!'' Ron yelled as he pointed his broken wand towards Malfoy and you could see him paling a little, if that was even possible.

Then a loud bang was heard in the stadium and they all saw Ron flying across the field hitting his back as he landed to the ground.

''Ron! Ron! Are you all right?'' Hermione shouted as she knelt next to him. All the Slyhterins were roaring with laughter as Ron suddenly started puking some slugs from his mouth.

''We'd better get him to Hagrid's, it's nearest,'' Harry said as he and Hermione helped Ron to stand up and started to guide him to Hagrid's hut. The Gryffindor's looked the furthering trio feeling sorry for both Ron, who was probably going to puke slugs the rest of the day and for Hermione for Malfoy's totally barbaric insult.

''The Slytherins are going to pay for this,'' Lucy said, her rage still streaming in her veins.

''Totally,'' the twins agreed feeling just as angry towards them as Lucy did.

The rest of the morning the triplets had occupied themselves to think especially good pranks they could pull on Slyhterins. Some of the prank ideas went a bit too far, but it was fun to think them and let their rage settle.

In the end they decided to humiliate them a little until they could think of something better. While the Slyhterins were still practicing Quidditch the triplets sneaked secretly to the pitch and they could see that Malfoy and Flint weren't kidding when they said that the brooms were good, since the triplets could barely see them from the ground.

The triplets walked into the changing rooms and jinxed the showers so that when they are open the water looks normal, but when you are under it for a while your skin turns bright orange. It doesn't last until the rest of the day, but the triplets thought that this was the perfect warm up.

After that they saw the Slyhterins coming and they ran out of the room and hid behind some of the bushes outside. About ten minutes later they could hear many loud shouts and curses coming from the changing room and the triplets cave themselves a high fives for mission accomplished.

XXX

Later that evening the triplets were telling their story over and over again in the Common Room and even Wood was laughing his head off after hearing how the Slyhterins had come out of the rooms sporting a brand new face color of salamander orange.

They even told how ridiculous Malfoy had looked since his hair is very pale blond so his skin had a very nice contrast. The triplets were a bit sorry that Harry and Ron had now their detention, but they promised to tell the story later to them.

XXX

In the night around midnight Lucy woke up from her dream and went to get some water from the bathroom and as she was drinking she suddenly heard something,

'' _Come...come to me...Let me rip you...Let me tear you...Let me kill you…''_

After hearing that creepy voice Lucy spitted the water out of her mouth in shock. She immediately went next to the wall trying to hear where and what the voice was, but the wall and the rest of the bathroom was quiet as a mouse.

''What the hell was that?'' She muttered out loud as she felt the cold tile from the wall.

 **So what do you think?**

 **I want to explain some things before you go and review me about them,**

 **One: I know that Harry came most of the times after Quidditch practice to the common room to shower, but I think that in the changing room on the pitch there was a shower. Come on, it's a changing room of course there should be a shower. And maybe Harry was just shy and wanted to shower in privacy.**

 **Two: Some of you might ask me that how could Lucy hear the Basilisk if he was somewhere near Harry on the third floor? Well the answer is simple: pipes carry voices far away in the pipeline so I think Lucy could possibly hear it since it was night and quiet around her. Okay, don't judge me, please.**

 **Review!**

 **Love you all, Snow!**


	7. Bad hair day

Bad hair day

The next Monday Lucy woke up as her dormitory's door slammed shut, indicating how Angelina and the rest of the girls had already woken up and left to get their breakfast before the day's classes. Lucy struggled once again to throw her covers off of her. And once she finally managed to wiggle herself out of her cocoon, she was about to get out of her warm bed when her legs got trapped into the covers and she fell out of the bed, but this time she hit her bottom to the floor.

Lucy sat up from the ground and rubbed her sore bottom while throwing her covers that had fallen back to the bed. After a while she finally managed to heave herself off the floor and into the bathroom. She took her hairbrush into her hands and was about to brush her hair when something in the mirror got her eyes.

Red.

Her hair was red.

It wasn't jet black and messy anymore, it was smooth, straight and red.

Lucy placed the brush back to the shelf as she took a deep breath and,

''TWINS!''

She immediately ran to the boys' dormitory to find twins and Lee on the floor where they had fallen from their beds when she had yelled. They looked up to see her standing in the doorway with her red hair falling onto her shoulders, and at first you could see amused looks on their faces, but when they saw Lucy's enraged face they immediately covered away from her, knowing how she could be even meaner that Mrs. Weasley when she was mad.

''Mind explaining,'' Lucy said in a threateningly calm voice as her eyes shot angry looks on the boys.

''Well, we…You tell her Fred,'' George said not having the courage to tell her the truth.

''We…um…Well, Lee had gotten this knew trick candy from Spain and we wanted to try it out, but it only turned one's hair red so we couldn't try it ourselves, so we thought you wouldn't mind,'' Fred explained, his voice getting quieter towards the end.

''I wouldn't have minded if you'd told me about it. Don't you remember how we promised to tell everything and not prank each other?'' Lucy asked.

''We do, but it was such a short notice and…well…yeah, we don't really have a good excuse,'' George finally admitted making Lucy sight in despair.

''How long does it last?'' She finally asked while pulling one strand of her now red hair.

''Only 'till the end of the day. Besides it looks good on you,'' Lee praised hoping to ease the tension around the room. And he wasn't lying. Lucy didn't really look like your typical girly girl when she had her messy hair and was always hanging around the twins and Lee. But now that her hair was straight and smooth she looked like a very pretty girl and even the twins had to admit that she did have a very nice face hidden under that messy hair of hers. And Lucy couldn't help but to notice how much she looked like her mother Lily now that the most conspicuous feature, her messy black hair, had been removed. And what Lucy could remember she knew that her mother had been a very beautiful woman, so she was worried about the attention the red hair might attract this day.

''Okay I forgive you, but remember if this happens again I promise that I _will_ jinx your brooms to be slower that the snails in the Burrow's garden,'' Lucy threatened. The twins shared a horrified looks as Lucy walked back to her dormitory to get ready.

After Lucy had dressed herself she went back to the bathroom to take the dreaded look at this new hair color of hers. She brushed it a couples times immediately noticing how much easier it was to brush now that it was smooth. She looked herself in the mirror and even though the first time she had noticed the hair she had been horrified, but now it didn't bother her that much anymore. But she still did want her old hair back since it was mostly the only feature in her looks that she inherited from her father and she didn't want to lose it no matter how much easier the hair was to control now.

XXX

The breakfast at the Great Hall was an awkward one to say the least. Those who knew Lucy started asking as to why her hair was now red and some guys from different houses suddenly came to her asking if she needed anything, making the twins feel extremely protective and refusing on her behalf.

Ron had come also to ask about her knew hair and after hearing that it was the twins' fault quickly went back to his seat as it was nothing surprising to him. During the breakfast the twins' made a silent agreement to never prank Lucy again. At least no way her appearance would change, as it was attracting a very unwanted attention in their opinion, manly boys.

After their breakfast their mood rapidly changed to dread as they now had double potions in the stone cold dungeons. They went to the class and as always Snape called their names in his bored voice and gave a quick look in their direction to see who had admitted to be presence. And once he got to Lucy, he took a look on her direction and froze when he saw her.

He quickly composed himself and continued his lecture as if nothing had happened and the students just brushed as him being slightly surprised by Lucy's knew hair color.

XXX

He couldn't believe his eyes.

He circled around the room while the students tried to make Girding Potion from scratch and most failing miserably. But during the long class, his eyes strayed many times towards the new red head in his class who was trying to make the potion with her Weasley friends.

The same red hair, just the same length too. The face and those dimples he knew all too well. The smile that could light up the whole room and the eyes that to this day still haunted his dreams.

It was no mistake about the identity of this girl that used to have that wretched messy black hair that now just screamed insult to his injury now that he knew who the young girl was. His dear Lily's perfect face and that Potter's black hair that ruined the perfect picture that now was now whole for once. There was no mistake, this was the first born daughter of Lily and James Potter, who everyone thought to be dead. Until now.

It was already an insult to him that the Potter boy had Lily's beautiful eyes slapped into James Potter's face, but now there was another one who had Lily's beautiful face and eyes, but Potter's hair.

In his mind he was getting angry at the one who he was sure knew about Lucy Potter's existence and did now tell him.

Albus Dumbledore.

Soon the class came to an end and the students left with a sour face as most of them failed to make the potion and now had to make a foot long essay to tell what they did wrong.

And after the students had left Snape took some powder and threw it into his offices fire and then called his destination as he stepped into the fire and was swooped into the Headmaster's office.

He came out of the fire place dusting himself from the soot and looked at the Headmaster who was sitting on his desk doing some paper work.

''Good day Severus. What might bring you here?'' Professor Dumbledore said as he raised his head from his paper work.

''Why didn't you tell me about her?'' Snape asked.

''About who?'' Professor Dumbledore asked as he rose from his desk and started walking towards his Potions Master.

''Lucy Potter,'' Snape said. Professor Dumbledore gave him a quick smile as he sat down to his armchair next to the fire place gesturing Snape to sit the one next to him, but he didn't preferring to stand.

''I see you now that she has that lovely red hair, no doubt curtsey of the young Mr. Fred and George Weasley, noticed her similarities with dear Lily,'' Professor Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling behind his spectacles.

''She is like a carbon copy of her now that that hideous black hair is not in the way,'' Snape seethed.

''Now now Severus, I for one think that Lucy's black hair makes her unique. She is a perfect balance of Lily and James, just like Harry,'' Professor Dumbledore said as Snape finally sat down to the armchair.

''But why didn't you tell me? Haven't I proven my loyalty to you time after time?'' Snape asked.

''It had nothing to do with your loyalty Severus. I kept Lucy's identity a secret from everybody so that both she and Harry could live normal lives and not have to worry about either of them getting hurt. Lucy already sees Harry as the most important person in her life, but as long as nobody knows who she is nobody has to hurt Harry to get to her. And as long as Harry does not know about Lucy, she will not become his weakness that she most likely would were he to find out about their relationship. There are many forces that would love to hurt Harry for him getting rid of Voldemort and hurting Lucy would prove to be very effective way to do it. Now you see why Harry or anybody for that matter must not know about Lucy until the time is right?'' Professor Dumbledore said as he rose to look out of the window.

Snape did see the reason behind the Headmasters actions but it did not wipe out the feeling that something dear had been stolen from him. His dead lily was dead even he had to admit it but she continued to live in her children and 'till now he had thought that to see Lily he'd have to look her through the Harry's eyes and to see his lifelong enemy's face as he did.

But now he could see her in Lucy, who held much more familiarities with Lily than with James. Yes she'd have her father's hair, but he could ignore it and look her eyes that finally, after eleven years were in the same face he had grown to love.

 **Yes it was short, sort of a filler chapter where nothing really happened. But I had planned to make a chapter where Snape would find out about Lucy and I didn't want it to be in the later books as more stuff would happen in those.**

 **And I really did mean that I'd like to have some reviews about the story. If I don't get anything back from you I'll lose my interest to write these. So please review, I don't want to sound desperate, but I am.**


	8. Halloween

Halloween

And just like every other year in Hogwarts time seemed to fly past and before anyone noticed the October came knocking on the door. The air got colder than what it already was and many students, as always, got sick during the cold and wet season. And so the school's nurse Madame Pomfrey was kept busy with the sick students. Even Ginny got dragged to see her when Percy thought she looked a bit ill. And after a dose of Madam Pomfrey's _Pepperup potion_ , that she guaranteed would get rid of the cold, poor Ginny looked like her head was on fire with her red hair and the smoke, that was a small side effect of the potion, coming from her ears.

Lucy of course forgave the twins and Lee for their small prank that changed her hair, but it didn't mean she didn't pay them back. When the twins and Lee were soundly sleeping the next night, Lucy quietly tip toed to their dormitory and transformed their school robes to something different and took their spear ones so they had to wear the ones they had left.

So in the morning the twins and Lee came down to the common room looking pretty grim and embarrassed in their new bright pink, purple and orange robes and on the back of the robes there was written in bold letters 'LUCY ROCKS!' so they didn't have to look far the one who did it.

Couple years before they would have taken this as a declaration of prank war, but from experience they knew that it would only get very brutal if they'd go for it. They knew that Lucy would play dirty if she must and prank wars usually would not be clean. So they just admitted their defeat and promised to leave her hair, that now was only very darkish red as the usual messiness was coming back, alone.

The teachers of course were not as pleased about their new bright robes and told them that if on the next class they did not have their usual black robes they would get detention. And after feeling like the prank had been paid back Lucy told them that the spell would wear off after a day, but still to ensure their minds she promised to give them back their spare robes at the evening so they didn't have to go to classes next morning in bright colored robes if the spell was still intact the next day.

XXX

Some days later the triplets and Lee were on their usual class of Care of Magical Creatures and this time their Professor Silvanus Kettleburn had lighted them a big bon fire outside, where they were supposed to study salamanders that enjoyed the fire. The fire of course was delight for the freezing students as well.

The Professor himself was, and always had been, a bit of a strange bloke. All the teachers in Hogwarts said that he had always been, ever since he was a young, a very reckless man and when one would see him they would agree on that. The Professor had already lost nearly all his limbs except one arm and half of one leg due to his reckless behavior and rather dangerous job, and now he got around in a wheelchair that was enchanted so it could get him up stairs and stuff.

And just before the class ended Fred took out his empty prank kit box and 'rescued' one salamander in it. They then headed back into the castle, planning to have some fun in the evening with the poor salamander.

So in the evening after classes in the Common Room while some did their homework, George had taken one of his _Filibuster fireworks_ and fed it to the salamander while some people watched in interest. Surprisingly the salamander ate the lighted firework, probably because the heat, and was now smouldering gently on the table.

After a couple of coughs from the salamander it suddenly started whizzing into the air, emitting loud sparks and bangs as it whirled wildly round the room while the triplets and Lee cheered. But of course Percy did not find this disturbance amusing and was now yelling his throat sore to the triplets while the salamander escaped into the safety of the fireplace.

XXX

And soon the in the end of the cold October the long awaited Halloween arrived. The halls were once again filled with the sweet scent of pumpkins and the Great Hall had been decorated with the usual live bats that were flying around the hall, Hagrid's vast pumpkins, that he had grown himself and was very proud of, had been carved into lanterns large enough for three men to sit in, and there were rumors running around the Hogwarts that Dumbledore had booked a troupe of dancing skeletons for the evening's entertainment.

The triplets were now happily eating their breakfast when Harry, Ron and Hermione sat on the other side of them. Lucy after a while of observing noticed the glum look Harry had.

''Why so down Harry?'' She asked after swallowing her piece of toast.

''I promised to go to Nearly Headless Nick's Death Day party and now we will miss the Halloween feast,'' Harry answered.

''Oh, but won't it be a fun experience. I mean it's not every day one can say that they have been on somebody's Death Day party,'' Lucy tried to cheer him.

''That's what I said,'' Hermione chimed in, making Lucy smile of how close the three friends have gotten.

''But still you miss all the good food,'' George suddenly said making Lucy send one of her nasty glares towards him, which he missed as he started, once again, pig out his breakfast.

''Cheer up. I bet it'll be fun,'' Lucy tried once again cheer Harry with very little success. And so after finishing their breakfast the triplets started heading towards their transfiguration class leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione finish their own breakfast.

And once again after all their classes the triplets with Lee practically ran to the Great Hall to eat. And true to the rumors Dumbledore indeed had booked some dancing skeletons and they were amazing, they even used their own bones as drumsticks. But right in the middle of her pudding Lucy started once again hear something she was sure nobody else around her could.

''… _rip…tear…kill…''_ She lowered her spoon and tried to hear over the cheering crowd while the skeletons gave their final bow.

''… _soo hungry…for so long…''_

''Guys, I think we should start going,'' Lucy said as she nudged a very satisfied Fred next to her. And even though the twins and Lee didn't hear the creepy voice she did, they were all so full that they were ready agree and to go to bed. They rose from the table along with many others, now that the feast was closing to an end, and started to leave the hall.

''… _kill…time to kill!''_ Now Lucy was panicking as she heard the voice when she passed the doors. Harry had not been on the feast and there was something in the castle that was going to kill. She quickly sped up her pace to find her little brother before something else did.

They were right at the bottom of the stairs when the voice raised it tone,

''… _I smell blood…I SMELL BLOOD!''_ Now Lucy was all but running and the twins and Lee were worriedly running behind her as the rest of the school was behind them coming from the Great Hall. Lucy stopped at the platform to the second floor and could somehow sense that this is where she should go. The twins and Lee tried to yell after her, but she didn't listen.

She was just running and stopped just in time when she noticed the water running on the floor. The twins and Lee collided into her after her sudden stop and also looked the water on the floor.

''What's going on?'' Lee asked while looking at the water that almost got his shoes wet.

''I don't know. Come on,'' Lucy said as they continued to walk ahead, not caring about the water under her feet.

They didn't need to walk far as from the next corner they could see Harry, Ron and Hermione looking at the wall in front of them with wide eyes. And when the triplets and Lee turned to look at the wall they could see why.

 _The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware,_ was written on the wall with big bright red letters that alarmingly looked like blood. And soon the rest of the school had joined them onto the second floor now looking at the message on the wall, some even gave loud gasps and some girls screamed a bit. They also noticed the stone stiff Mrs. Norris hanging on the wall. This was not a Halloween prank, not by far. Even the troll last year was milder than this.

''Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!'' Draco Malfoy suddenly informed behind them when he had read the message.

''What's going on here? What's going on?'' Filch suddenly yelled as he weaved through the mass of students to see the bloody wall and his beloved cat hanging from it. And after seeing her, his eyes narrowed when he looked around himself.

''My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?'' He yelled until his eyes landed on Harry. ''You! ''You! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll…''

''Argus!'' Came the voice of Professor Dumbledore. He came to the scene followed by many teachers who some cave a loud gasps as they saw the wall in front of them. Dumbledore took a quick look around the hall and then without another word he unhooked Mrs. Norris from the wall and turned around.

''Come with me, Argus,'' he said to Filch. ''You, too, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger.''

''My office is nearest, Headmaster, just upstairs, please feel free…'' Lockhart suddenly said as he pointed towards the stairs that lead to the third floor.

''Thank you, Gilderoy,'' Dumbledore said swiftly. The crowd let Professor Dumbledore pass Harry, Ron, Hermione, Filch, Lockhart, McGonagall and Snape on his tail.

After they had gone the crowd quickly parted wanting to leave the terrifying scene. The triplets' and Lee's mood had quickly went down after witnessing that particular confrontation.

''Does any of you remember what the Chamber of Secrets was?'' Lee suddenly asked when they got through the portrait hole.

''I think I got something to do with Slytherins,'' George said.

''Of course everything bad in this school always has to do with Slytherins,'' Fred said bitterly while Lucy was still thinking about the strange voice and how Harry was the first to find that writing on the wall.

''I think I'll go to sleep guys,'' Lucy said not waiting the answer from the guys as she went to her dormitory. She quickly pulled her robes of and changed into her pajamas and was in the bed before Angelina, with the rest of the girls, came in.

It took a long time before she fell asleep as she kept thinking everything in her head and worry over Harry was eating her insides. And this thing with the wall and Mrs. Norris, somehow Lucy knew it was only the beginning of the horrors that were awaiting them in the near future.

 **Sorry for the long wait, but as I said reviews keep me writing and as I haven't gotten any I did lose my inspiration to write this stuff. I only got it back when I read one of the Harry Potter books again. But I don't know how long that inspiration's going to last. So Review!**

 **Love Snow!**


	9. The legend

**Wow seven reviews, you have no idea how those have inspired me. Sorry that these updates take so much time, but I currently have three stories I intend to finish and I'm so close to graduation that the school is also getting a little hectic. But I will update even if they will take some time and continue reviewing, they make the updates come sooner.**

 **Love you all,**

 **Snow**

The legend

For the next few days the school talked nothing but the attack on Mrs. Norris and the creepy writing on the wall. And Filch was not one to forgive or forget, or let anyone else forget for that matter. He could be seen pacing around the corridor where the writing was still shining just as bright red as it had during the Halloween night, even though Filch tried to scrub it away with _Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover,_ but no effect.

And when Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking and muttering with red- eyes through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy'.

During one evening at the common room when Ron noticed the glum looking Ginny by the fire he automatically remembered that Ginny loved cats and that the fate of Mrs. Norris must had shaken her. And so he tried to cheer her up, but only managed to make things worse.

''But you haven't really got to know Mrs. Norris,'' Ron told her as he sat next to her. ''Honestly, we're much better off without her.'' Ginny's lip started to trembled after that. ''Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts,'' Ron tried to assure her. ''They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking…'' Ron added hastily as Ginny started to shake like a leaf.

''Good job Ron, really. You really know how to cheer a girl up,'' Lucy scolded as she wrapped her arms around the shaking Ginny and guided her to her dormitory to calm down. After some comforting and soothing words Ginny fell asleep in her bed and Lucy gently tugged her in and left the dormitory to yell Ron's ear off.

The twins didn't envy Ron that evening.

XXX

One morning the triplets were in the Great Hall eating their breakfast when Lee came running to them.

''I got it, I got the last one,'' Lee said as he slammed a big old book in front of them.

''It's a sad day to see one of us getting _that_ book,'' Fred said while shaking his head as he eyed the book in front of him.

''Yeah,'' George and Lucy said at the same time. The book was the _History of Hogwarts_ , a book they had promised to never even open, let alone borrow from the library.

''Come on guys. We just read the chapter about the Chamber of Secrets and then return the book before anyone notices we ever had it,'' Lee said as he stared to riffle the pages. ''Here it is:

 _Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago -_ the precise date is unknown _\- by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses were named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built the castle together in, far from Muggle eyes._ ''

''Yeah yeah Lee, we know this stuff. Skip to the part about the Chamber,'' George said impatiently.

''I'm getting there. So: _For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and brought them to the castle to be educated in the art. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school._

That was the historical fact, this is the legend. Are you ready?'' Lee asked.

''Get on with it!'' The triplets all said impatiently.

''Right, sorry. _The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing._

 _Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic,_ '' Lee finished.

''Wow, talk about paranoid to think that muggle-born were the bad guys here,'' Fred said as the others nodded their heads. They then quickly ate their breakfast and Lee packed the book back into the bag and then they all left for their first lesson that happened to be Charms.

XXX

Some days later Lee had as promised returned the book back to the library where it had been taken as soon as Lee got it to the Madam Pince. And during the dinner the triplets heard Percy muttering how Ron had tried to go to the girl's bathroom on the second floor. The triplets of course knew what great source of teasing that pit of information was and couldn't wait to use it.

And second even more unbelievable rumor was that Harry, _Harry Potter_ , was the heir of Slytherin. When one first year student told them this, they all burst out laughing surprising the little boy. To that Fred replied that Harry was as much of Slytherin's heir as he was Dumbledore. To no one's surprise the little boy got very red on the face due to his embarrassment and hurried away to tell the rumor to someone else who'd take him more seriously.

And so back in the common room the triplets could see Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting at their usual chairs by the fire away from everyone else. And the triplets didn't forget to remind Ron for his embarrassing journey to the bathroom earlier making Ron's ears flaming red. And so Lucy decided that Ron enough embarrassment for one day and dragged the twins and Lee to continue their experiment with the prank stuff to get the perfect mix of candy that will make your cheeks swollen so that you'll look like a puffer fish.

 **Sorry it was so short but the next one will be longer, I hope.**

 **Love you,**

 **Snow**


	10. Good broom Winner

**Ten reviews, ten. I love you guys so much. You don't know how much those reviews keep me writing. I can't thank you enough, you proved to me that there are indeed people reading this story and wanting to read more about it. Thank you so much.**

 **Keep on reviewing and I promise to keep updating.**

 **Love you all,**

 **Snow**

Good broom ≠ Winner

The next days went pretty smoothly, if you can forget the upcoming Quidditch match that was being played the next Saturday. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

The triplets had informed Wood about the speed of the Slyhterin team's new brooms and Wood had tormented his team relentlessly to top the speed of the brooms with skill.

And to say that the Quidditch practices they had were hard was an understatement. They were torture. Every time the team would come back to the common room with muscles hurting and practically dead on their feet. But the will to win against Slyhterin and prove that you don't need a lot of money and only a good broom to be a good Quiddicht player was what kept them to push themselves to practice harder and not complain to Wood about the hard practices.

And soon the long awaited _and_ treaded day was upon them. It was Saturday morning and the game would be played today. The Gryffindor Quidditch team, minus Harry, had all waken very early that morning, even the triplets who'd usually sleep 'till noon if given chance, and went to get breakfast in peace until the rest of the school would awake.

There was no speaking from anyone's account. Not even the usually loud triplets could voice any thought that were swimming in their minds. The tension around the table was so thick that one could slice it with a knife. They ate their breakfast slowly, but no one was bothering to check what they were actually eating. It could be toast or porridge for all they cared, or even a napkin which Wood did notice immediately as he accidently put it into his mouth.

Soon they saw Harry joining them and sitting next to Angelina as he too started to eat his breakfast in silence, not bothering to strike a conversation as he too felt the tension of wanting to win so badly.

Little by little the Great Hall started to fill with students and teachers who came to eat their breakfasts as well. And before the clock could strike eleven, Wood dragged the team to the changing rooms by the Quidditch pitch to start get ready.

They put on their usual scarlet and gold robes and sat down to wait for Wood's usual pep talk.

''Slytherin has better brooms than us,'' Wood said from the front, ''No point denying it. But we've got better people on our brooms. We've trained harder than they have, we've been flying in all weathers…''

''Too true. I haven't been properly dry since August,'' George muttered to Fred and Lucy, who after that had a hard time keeping their faces straight.

''…and we're going to make them rue the day they let that little bit of slime, Malfoy, buy his way onto their team,'' Wood said until he turned to face Harry. ''It'll be down to you, Harry, to show them that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying, Harry, because we've got to win today, we've got to,'' Wood encouraged Harry, not noticing the small frown on Lucy's face when he, once again, put too much pressure on her little brother's shoulders.

''So no pressure, Harry,'' Fred said as he nudged Harry with his elbow on his side. They then got up and went outside the rooms to be greeted with loud cheers from Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, who all wanted to see Slyhterin go down. And then there were the quieter boo's from Slyhterins that were muddled by the cheers.

Madam Hooch ordered Wood and the Slyhterins captain Flint to shake their hands, which looked more like trying to crush each other's hands than shaking to be honest. Lucy wouldn't be surprised if Wood's hand would bruise after words.

''On my whistle,'' Madam Hooch said as she placed her sliver whistle between her lips, ''Three…two…one,'' and as she blew the whistle fourteen players were in the air, while the cheering went on around the pitch.

The game was on. Lucy, along her team's other chasers, tried to get the Quaffle, but it turned out to be a lot harder than they thought. The Slyhterin team's brooms were indeed a lot faster than theirs so they got the ball a lot quicker than the girls did and to make things worse it had started to rain during the game, making the air a bit chilly and hard to see as the water kept running into their eyes. And so the Slytherin got goals embarrassingly easily, even though Wood was the keeper. And the worst thing was that Lee, who was once again doing the commentary, was announcing it to everyone,

'' _Slytherin lead, sixty points to zero._ ''

But soon Lucy heard Madam Hooch whistling her whistle, indicating that one of the captains had asked a time out. She divided to the ground, along with Angelina and Katie, to see Wood approaching Fred, George and Harry.

''What's going on?'' Wood asked when the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherins in the crowd jeered. ''We're being flattened. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring?''

''We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry, Oliver,'' George said angrily making Lucy look Harry worriedly, ''Someone's fixed it, it won't leave Harry alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it.''

''But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then…'' Wood reasoned. Just then Harry could see Madam Hooch walking towards them to ask if they were ready to continue the game.

''Listen, with you two flying around me all the time the only way I'm going to catch the Snitch is if it flies up my sleeve. Go back to the rest of the team and let me deal with the rogue one,'' Harry said to the twins.

''No way in hell Harry. That Bludger will flatten you to the ground,'' Lucy said, not wanting her brother anywhere near a thing that wants to do harm to him. Wood was just looking between them, as if asking Harry to agree to his rules to continue no matter what.

''Oliver, this is insane,'' Katie said angrily to him. ''You can't let Harry deal with that thing on his own. Let's ask for an inquiry…''

''If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match!'' Harry said. ''And we're not losing to Slytherin just because of a crazy Bludger! Come on, Oliver, tell them to leave me alone!''

''This is all your fault,'' George said angrily to Wood, while Lucy showed just as angry face to her captain. '' _Get the Snitch or die trying_ , what a stupid thing to tell him…''

Just then Madam Hooch came to the team.

''Ready to resume play?'' She asked. Wood looked at Harry's determined face and made his choice.

''All right,'' Wood finally said. ''Fred, George, you heard Harry, leave him alone and let him deal with the Bludger on his own.'' Then Madam Hooch marched back to the middle of the pitch and just before Madam Hooch could blow her whistle Lucy pulled Wood's robe and brought his face close to hers.

''If anything happens to Harry because of your decision, I will personally make sure that the rest of your school year will be miserable,'' Lucy quietly hissed to Wood until she too mounted her broom, ready to continue just in time for Madam to blow her whistle.

For a while the Gryffindor chasers tried to get the Quaffle from the Slyhterins and sometimes they actually did get it, but every time the Slyhterins would use some dirty tricks, that still for some reason were in the line with the rule book, and got the Quaffle.

And just when Lucy was chasing one of the Slyhterins chasers to get the Quaffle, a severe pain exploded in her right elbow. For a moment her vision was hazy due the pain but she soon realized that the pain was once again not her own, meaning that Harry had hurt his arm so badly that it was most likely broken.

And just before Lucy could see Angelina trying to get the Quaffle, Madam Hooch blew into her whistle and Lee declared that Gryffindor had won the match. Harry must have gotten the Snitch. Her brother never seemed to surprise Lucy. Even with his arm broken he still managed to get it. Amazing.

Lucy looked down to see her brother passed out on the ground and the rogue Bludger was still aiming for him. Lucy soon flew towards him and just before the Bludger could hit him, she snatched in midair. And even with her arm hurting like hell she still managed to see the importance of her brother's safety and with her full weight she managed to press the Bludger on to the ground, where it still tried to escape, but she didn't let it. The twins soon came to help her.

And while they together tried to get the Bludger back into its box, she could hear that Harry had woken up and that the phony Lockhart was trying to 'help' him. Lucy could feel the pain to leave her arm, but at the same time she felt like it had been sucked from all of its energy almost leaving it hanging limb on her side.

The triplets got the Bludger back into its box and immediately went to see what was going on with Harry. And to their horror they saw that his hand had been entirely removed from its bones, leaving it looking like a slightly pink rubber glove that was uselessly hanging from his shoulder.

''Ah,'' Lockhart said when he noticed Harry's now pretty much useless arm, ''Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. But the point is the bones are no longer broken. That's the thing to bear in mind. So, Harry, just toddle up to the hospital wing…ah, Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, would you escort him?...and Madam Pomfrey will be able to…er…tidy you up a bit.''

Harry then got up from the ground with the help from Ron and Hermione and left the Quidditch pitch, while many of the Gryffindor team members, along with many students, gave a dirty look towards Lockhart for doing this to their Seeker.

While Harry was being taken to the Hospital Wing to be taken care of, the rest of his team took their brooms, Wood took Harry's, and placed them back to their prober places before heading to the castle to get their well-deserved victory party with Harry.

They burst into the Hospital Wing to notice that Harry had already changed his robes to simple hospital pajamas and was sitting on the bed with Ron and Hermione by his side.

''Unbelievable flying, Harry,'' George said while he gave a gentle pat to Harry's good shoulder. ''I've just seen Marcus Flint yelling at Malfoy. Something about having the Snitch on top of his head and not noticing. Malfoy didn't seem too happy.''

They had taken a small detour through the kitchens and had brought some cakes, sweets, and bottles of pumpkin juice. And just when their grand party was about to begin, the ever strict Madam Pomfrey came storming over, shouting, ''This boy needs rest, he's got thirty-three bones to regrow! Out! OUT!''

And so the team with Ron and Hermione were forced to leave Harry alone into the Hospital Wing. While walking back to the common room Lucy could feel how the pain was seeping back into her arm and knew that the next night would not be pleasant for either Harry or to her.


	11. Beautiful' prank

''Beautiful'' prank

As Lucy had expected the night was…testing to say the least. Her arm, even if she didn't feel the full capacity of Harry's pain, was still stiff and achy. It felt like the arm was jelly and full of splinters at the same time.

So to no one's surprise Lucy didn't sleep very much that night. So as she couldn't sleep, she tried to imagine the worst prank possible to humiliate that phony Lockhart for doing this to Harry. At first Lucy had thought of changing his robes to every color possible, but that wouldn't work as the 'pretty princess' already had robes in every color and probably wouldn't know the difference.

Then she thought that she'd hex him to not be able to speak, but that was no good idea either as the spell she knew would only last for couple hours and Lockhart would probably go to Dumbledore to have it removed, as the man loved his own voice too much to not be able to speak for couple hours.

Then a brilliant idea came to mind. Lucy still had the one of the candies the twins had given her that changed her hair color and it couldn't be reversed no matter what she did. She only had to modify the candy so that Lockhart's hair wouldn't turn red, since that would be an insult to Weasleys and the rest of the worlds red heads.

She knew that Snape could possibly find an antidote to the candy, but from her observations she knew that Snape hated Lockhart just as much as the rest of the teachers, so he would probably say to Lockhart, if he were to ask, that there wasn't an antidote.

The plan was just to make the candy in liquid form so she could sneak it into 'the pretty princess''' morning tea and then just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

It was going to be beautiful.

XXX

The next morning Lucy woke up unusually early due to her arm feeling very stiff, probably because Harry's bones had been regrown overnight. So Lucy just rose up from her bed and went to the bathroom to have a nice shower. After washing herself she could feel how her arm had started to gain some movement back into it, meaning that Harry was okay.

She quickly brushed her hair and teeth and then put on some robes. She then took the prank candy, which was still in its red wrapping paper, and after unwrapping it she placed it into her potion mortar and started to crush it into a fine powder.

After looking at the powder that was now fine pinkish red in color, she started to look through her potion ingredients to find out what she could use. After going over many different ingredients she had in her potion kit, she finally noticed the single root of the old and stately pine, that she had once bought form the Diagon Alley apothecary long time ago. She placed the root into the mortar and started to crush it into the powder.

After a long time of crushing, she now looked at the fine gray powder in the mortar. She then placed the powder into a small vial and then added some of her tasteless potion, that was usually used to hide the taste of some foul potions, and then she shook the bottle so the ingredients would mix together. After a while of shaking the bottle it was full of dark gray liquid. Ready to be used and Lucy knew exactly to what she was going to use it.

Lucy placed the vial into the pocket of her robe and headed down to the common room to wait for the twins and Lee to wake up. After about half an hour later, the still sleepy twins and Lee emerged from their dormitory, their hair still messed from the night, and together they headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

To their great surprise not many others were still down. Just couple first years and few fourth years, but no teachers yet. The twins and Lee took their seat and were puzzled when Lucy just passed them and headed towards the teachers table. Lucy quickly poured the potion into Lockhart's teacup and then added some tea into it. She knew the cups were charmed so that the tea would stay warm.

She then pocketed the now empty vial and headed to Gryffindor table and sat next to Lee and slowly started to eat her breakfast, while the twins and Lee gave her a puzzled look.

''Just wait and see,'' was the only thing Lucy said as she continued to eat her breakfast. The twins looked at each other and decided to do just as Lucy instructed and started to eat their own breakfast.

Soon the students and teachers started to fill the hall. Professor McGonagall was one of the first teachers present as always and when Professor Flitwig arrived the triplets and Lee could hear how Professor McGonagall told him how some Gryffindor first year had been found petrified on the hallway last night. The poor student was now in the Hospital Wing until he could be cured.

What was going on, first someone petrifies Filch's cat and now a student. Lucy would try to find out later.

Lockhart was of course one of the last ones to come to the hall as he probably used all the morning to fix his hair so that it was on its perfect curls, oblivious to all the horror that the other teachers were talking about. And to Lucy's great delight, Lockhart drank all his tea without noticing anything wrong with it.

But after a minute or so, the students around the hall started to snigger and whisper as they pointed towards Lockhart. Lockhart himself was, of course, oblivious to all of this, until dear Professor Sprout, who had the misfortune to sit next to him, pointed that something was wrong with his hair.

Lockhart of course immediately, out of his own vanity, took out a pocket mirror and with a loud shriek he started to finger comb his now brittle gray hair. Gone were the perfectly curled golden blond curls and in its place were straight smoky gray hair that looked like it came from an old hag's head and the hair made Snape's greasy mop of hair look very smooth and stylized.

The hall of course after hearing his shout turned to look at him and started to laugh out loud when they saw his hair.

There were a couple of teachers, who had trouble controlling their laughter as well. Professor Sprout had, probably out of politeness, covered her mouth as she was behind it sniggering as well. Professor McGonagall had a small smile on her lips as she continued to drink her own tea. Professor Flitwick, who sat next to her, had hidden his head under the table and one could see his chair shaking a bit as he was probably laughing out loud and didn't want to show it. Hagrid had no problem showing his delight as he was laughing out loud and was probably one of the loudest voices that was laughing in the hall.

The twins and Lee all gave Lucy high fives for her very well accomplished prank. Lockhart of course tried to spell his hair back to normal, but Lucy knew that it was pointless; it would only make it worse. He then ran to Professor Snape, who had a very faint smirk on his face when he saw the phony's new hair.

Lockhart asked a potion to reverse the horrible curse that had been placed on him, but as Lucy had expected Snap said, that since he doesn't know the ingredients that were used to change Lockhart's hair he couldn't make an antidote.

Lockhart after hearing this immediately covered his hair and ran wailing out of the hall and would probably lock himself into his room until his hair turned back.

''That was awesome. How'd you did you do it?'' Fred asked after Lockhart had run off.

''Remember the candy you gave me?'' Lucy asked.

''Yeah, but it's supposed to change one's hair color red, not gray,'' Lee said.

''True, but I modified the candy a bit since red was not exactly the best color to use on Lockhart. It would insult two of my best friends,'' Lucy explained as she winked towards the twins.

''Then what did you do? And doesn't that just last till this evening? I was expecting a more of a lasting prank,'' George lightly scolded.

''First, I crushed a root of an old and stately pine and then added some tasteless potion. Second, thanks to the effect of the root the hair color should last about a week, if we're _unlucky_ ,'' Lucy said and the twins and Lee had an urge to give her another set of high fives.

XXX

By the time Monday came, the news of the first year Gryffindor Colin Greevey being petrified and that he was now lying in the Hospital Wing like dead, had spread through the entire school. The rest of the first years were now terrified to walk the corridors alone, so in order to prevent anything from happening they had started to walk in small groups.

Ginny who knew Colin a little bit better since she sat next to him in Charms was very distraught. So the triplets thought they'd try to cheer her up. But usually when the triplets would cover themselves with something, you name it fur, boils, different colored skin, and jump behind something trying to 'scare' her she'd laugh and tell them that they look funny and that they were dumb.

But this time when they did it she would scream bloody murder and run away actually being scared of them. Something that never usually happened. The triplets had to stop trying to cheer Ginny, when a very angry Percy came to yell at them and tell them that if they won't stop he's going to write to Mrs. Weasley and tell her how their scaring was causing Ginny to have nightmares.

So eventually the triplets mellowed a bit to the level of good older siblings and tried to cheer Ginny with just some encouraging words. It helped a bit and once they had apologized and Ginny of course forgave them as they couldn't know that she wasn't in the mood to be scared at the moment.

XXX

When the news of the poor Colin started to spread the students came up their own ideas of what had caused it. And so behind the teachers' backs a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Some students, especially muggleborns, bought the talismans trying to protect themselves.

And soon McGonagall had pinned the list of those who would stay in the school for Christmas. The triplets, along with many of their classmates, were eager to leave the school. But Lucy did notice that Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, were going to stay in the school. She'd have to go to Dumbledore and ask if Harry was going to be safe during the holidays or if she should stay in the school as well to look after him.


	12. Reassurance

1\. Reassurance

That night when everyone was in bed in deep sleep, Lucy tip toed to the twins' dormitory and nicked the Marauder's Map from Fred trunk where they always hid it after using it (last time was to a late night snack in the kitchens). She looked the map and after noticing no one around the seventh floor or the portrait of the Fat Lady she exited the Common room.

She practically ran to Dumbledore's office and luckily she didn't bump into anyone, namely Filch, who was still sore and raw for what happened to his cat and so had taken to roam the corridors late at night so that he could perhaps catch the one who did it to his cat, or he just really badly wanted to catch some unsuspecting student out of bed, who knows? Lucy then gave the gargoyle the password and then she entered the headmaster's office.

She saw Dumbledore doing some paper work, but she knew that he had noticed her entering as she quietly closed the door behind her.

''Well what gives me the pleasure for this nightly visit?'' Dumbledore said as he raised his head from the papers, his eyes twinkling like usual.

''I wanted to know if Hogwarts would be safe during the holidays since Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, are staying. I don't want to come back and hear that one of them has been petrified,'' Lucy said to Dumbledore.

''My dear any other time I would say that Hogwarts was the safest place in England, but given what has happened during the last few months I cannot promise you that,'' Dumbledore said as he put some of his papers to his drawer.

''So there's a change of Harry getting hurt?'' Lucy asked feeling very worried now and was actually considering staying.

''I do not think so. Harry is a Halfblood and his wizard blood will protect him from this being that hunts Muggleborns,'' Dumbledore said.

''But Hermione is a Muggleborn. What about her?'' Lucy asked frantically, fearing how the creature would attack her and Harry and Ron who are with her.

''I believe that Ms. Granger stays with her friends and their blood will protect her as well. The being cannot hurt her without hurting Harry or Mr. Weasley. And Salazar Slytherin would feel like it would be a waste of good wizard blood to hurt a Pure-blood and a Half-blood in order to get one Muggleborn,'' Dumbledore explained and Lucy felt somewhat relieved. She knew Hermione didn't actually have any other friends she'd hang out with, except Harry and Ron. And since the school would be practically empty during the holidays, she was bound to stay with the boys.

''So I can rest assure that Harry and his friends will be alright if I go to the Burrow for Christmas?'' Lucy asked.

''I assure you, my dear, that I will look after your brother and his friends, along with all the other students that stays in Hogwarts. This school always protects its own,'' Dumbledore assured her and she believed him. One thing Dumbledore never does is lie.

''Thank you sir. I think I'll can to bed now, knowing that Harry _will_ be safe,'' Lucy said as she hid a yawn behind her hand.

''I think that is wise. Good night my dear,'' Dumbledore said as he escorted Lucy to the door.

''Good night Professor,'' Lucy said. And then after exiting the office she checked the map and once finding how Filch was in the library she ran back to the common room. As she got there she once again fell into her bed fully clothed and was quickly in deep sleep feeling secure about the idea of Harry staying in Hogwarts.

 **I know it's short, but I've really not felt like writing this in a long time, I don't know why. So I didn't want to force myself to write something bad just so that I could post something. But this has been written during a short inspiration, hopefully my motivation returns soon, I like this story and I have so much planned to the future I just have to find a way to make myself write it down. But reviews *wink wink* will always inspire me.**

 **Love you all,**

 **Snow**


	13. Dueling Club

**I'm back. I finally found some inspiration. Mostly because you favorited, followed and reviewed to me. Thank you so much. Hope this chapter is good and hopefully my inspiration stays so you'll get more chapters in the future.**

 **Love you all,**

 **Snow**

1\. Dueling Club

About a week later the triplets along with Lee were after classes walking across the entrance hall and saw the notice on the notice board and were immediately interested.

''A Dueling Club. There hasn't been Dueling Club in like hundred years,'' George said when he read the notice. And true to his words Dueling Club used to be a regular school club until one student almost died during one of the mock duels and after that the club had been shut down, until now.

''Hundred and fifty, but who's counting? Should we go?'' Lucy asked.

''Yeah,'' the twins said before Lucy could even finish.

''Okay, okay you two, I was just asking, geez,'' Lucy said.

''But why is it opened now? They can't possibly think that dueling will win the monster from the Chamber,'' Lee wondered.

''Who cares, we'll get to learn how to duel,'' Fred said as he started pulling Lucy, while George pulled Lee, to get some dinner before the club.

XXX

Later that evening they entered the Great Hall where the long dining tables had vanished and a golden stage had appeared along one wall, lit by thousands of candles floating overhead. The Hall was already full of people as the club seemed to interest many. Lucy could even spot Harry, Ron and Hermione in the crowd.

''Who do you think will teach? Dumbledore?'' Lee asked as they weaved themselves closer to the stage.

''Doubt it. Maybe Flitwick or McGonagall,'' Lucy said. But then their worst nightmare appeared at the other end of the stage.

''Oh no,'' the triplets chorused.

''Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, to train you all in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions, for full details, see my published works. Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape,'' Lockhart said when he gestured towards Snape, who seemed like he'd want to be anywhere but there.

''He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry, you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!'' Lockhart said.

''Do you think Snape will murder him?'' Lucy asked, feeling the great regret of ever showing to the club, whose quality just dropped rapidly.

''I wouldn't be that hopeful. But then again his position is jinxed, so maybe Snape doesn't have to,'' Fred said.

''That time can't come soon enough,'' Lucy muttered.

''Too true,'' the twins and Lee agreed. Snape then walked at the other end of the stage and they politely bowed to each other. Or at least Lockhart bowed and Snape just nodded his head.

''As you see, we are holding our wands in the accepted combative position. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course,'' Lockhart assured the crowd.

''Shame,'' the triplets muttered together.

''One…two…three…'' Lockhart counted until,

''Expelliarmus!'' Snape yelled and a scarlet light flashed from his wand and nocked Lockhart from his feet. He flew backward off the stage, smashed into the wall, and slid down it to sprawl on the floor.

''Now this is what makes it all those long boring classes worth it,'' George said as they watched Lockhart trying to get back to his feet.

Well, there you have it! That was a Disarming Charm, as you see, I've lost my wand…ah, thank you, Miss Brown, yes, an excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy, however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…'' Lockhart babbled, while the look Snape sent to his way would surely murder him thousand times over if looks could kill.

''Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me…'' Lockhart said and they soon paired up. Fred was with Lucy while George and Lee was a pair.

''Face your partners!'' Lockhart called, back on the platform. ''And bow!'' Lucy mockingly curtsied to Fred, who in return did a mock version of a stylish French bow.

''Wands at the ready!'' Lockhart shouted. ''When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents, only to disarm them, we don't want any accidents, one...two...three…''

And they began. Snape made it seem so easy. Not only was the spell more difficult than it seemed, but Fred and Lucy both dodged when the other one managed to get the spell right. And in the end they found themselves casting other spells as well. And it seemed that George and Lee were in the small position as now George had a small tint of purple in his hair.

Lucy had at the beginning felt a hit on her head, but was fairly sure it was from Harry since Fred hadn't managed to hit her. But as she looked at her brother she saw him paired up with Malfoy, not Ron as she had expected, Snape must have had something to do with it.

''I said disarm only!'' They heard Lockhart shouting over the noise. But his shout didn't seem to have the hoped effect Snape stepped it.

''Finite Incantatem!'' And everything quieted down immediately. Many students had now broken noses and other injuries and lockhart was walking among them trying to count the damage.

''Let's have a volunteer pair, Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, how about you…'' he then started but,

''A bad idea, Professor Lockhart,'' Snape interrupted, ''Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We'll be sending what's left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox.'' Neville's round, pink face went pinker. ''How about Malfoy and Potter?'' He then suggested, making Lucy mad. He knew very well how much those two hated each other. Was he trying to get one of them murder the other?

''Excellent idea!'' The idiot Lockhart agreed. Harry then moved next to Lockhart while Malfoy went to Snape, both of the teachers giving them some advice. But Lucy was pretty sure that whatever advice Snape gave to Malfoy, was better than what Lockhart gave to Harry.

''Three…two…one…go!'' Lockhart yelled the duel to begin.

Malfoy raised his wand quickly and bellowed, ''Serpensortia!'' A big black snake appeared from his wand and the crown immediately moved away from the snake. Lucy was immediately at alert, ready to command the snake to move away from her brother if the need arises.

''Don't move, Potter,'' Snape said lazily, clearly enjoying the sight of Harry standing motionless, eye to eye with the angry snake. "I'll get rid of it…''

''Allow me!'' Lockhart said. He brandished his wand at the snake and there was a loud bang; the snake, instead of vanishing, flew ten feet into the air and fell back to the floor with a loud smack. Enraged, hissing furiously, it slithered straight toward Justin Finch-Fletchley and raised itself again, fangs exposed, poised to strike.

Harry then to Lucy's horror stepped closer the snake and shouted, '' _Leave him alone_!'' But it wasn't English Harry spoke, it was Parseltongue, a language usually associated with dark wizards, a reason why Lucy kept her ability to speak it a secret. And now to find out her little brother spoke it. But how? She spoke it because it was part of her power as a Dragon Girl, but Harry was not one and she didn't think that the power ran in their family, right?

And miraculously, inexplicably, the snake after hearing Harry's shout, slumped to the floor, docile as a thick, black garden hose, its eyes now on Harry. As were all the others too.

''What do you think you're playing at?'' Justin shouted as he was understandably angry. Not that Lucy liked how Justin was angry towards her brother for partially no reason, but understood that their ability to talk to snakes, and in Lucy's case lizards, was not looked overly fondly.

Justin then stormed out of the hall while Snape vanished the snake from the floor, looking at Harry with unreadable look. Ron then quickly grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him out of the Hall, probably to hear and explanation to what just happened.

''That was…unexpected,'' Lee said as they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione vanish behind the large doors.

''Totally,'' the twins agreed.

''But guys come on, this doesn't mean that harry would be the heir of Slytherin,'' Lucy said, hoping that this hasn't changed their views of the fact.

''Of course it doesn't. Come on this is _Harry Potter_ we're talking about. Of course he doesn't have any vendetta against Muggle-borns. One of his best friends is a Muggle-born,'' Fred assured her and George and Lee were also nodding their heads.

Good thing she had such good friends, now she doesn't have to prank them to high heaven because they would agree on that small little detail.


	14. Another attack

1\. Another attack

The next day wasn't that bad as Lucy had expected. Oh wait, it was just as bad as she had expected. Now that Harry had revealed his secret talent to speak to snakes, an ability Salazar Slytherin was known for, everyone believed him to be the Heir of Slytherin.

Lucy had a hard time not cursing every student who voiced their opinion of how Harry was the Heir and was attacking the muggleborns now. The twins and Lee of course agreed with Lucy to the point where they thought it to be hilarious to even think that Harry would harm anyone.

But they couldn't just dwell on that note since they had classes to go to and after their another failed potion class, which was weird since back at home when they mix their prank stuff to create another prank stuff they are great but at school they fail spectacularly. So after the class Snape had given all who failed the potion a task to write a two feet long essay of the desired effects and side effects of Dittany.

So after class the triplets did a rock paper scissors to decide who had to go to the library and pick a book about plants. And unfortunately as always Lucy fell for it and lost. So now she was in the library at the herbology section searching the book of the _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ because the triplets forgot their copies at home.

And just as Lucy had found the book and was about to go register it to Madam Pince she started to hear voices from the other isle.

''You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie'' she heard a girl say.

''Hannah, he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue, Lucy heard a boy she recognized as Ernie Macmillan say. ''Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Flich's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know, Creevey's been attacked,'' he said.

''He always seems so nice, though, and, well, he's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can't be all bad, can he?'' The girl Hannah said. As Lucy listened them she desperately wanted to go there to yell at them of how wrong they really were, but somehow managed to hold herself, even though her knuckles had turned white due to the tightness of her hold from the book.

''No one knows how he survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice until it was barely more than a whisper, and said, "That's probably why You- Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. Didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding?'' Lucy heard Ernie say to Hannah.

''Hello, I'm looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley,'' Lucy suddenly heard Harry's voice.

''What do you want with him?'' Ernie said in a quavering voice.

''I wanted to tell him what really happened with that snake at the Dueling Club,'' Harry said but Lucy could hear some insecurity from his voice.

''We were all there. We saw what happened,'' Ernie said.

''Then you noticed that after I spoke to it, the snake backed off?'' Harry said.

''All I saw, was you speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin,'' Ernie said and as Lucy peeked from behind the shelf she could see how the boy was trembling.

''I didn't chase it at him! It didn't even touch him!'' Harry said with a raised voice which was pound to get Madam Pince's attention.

''It was a very near miss. And in case you're getting ideas, I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so…'' Ernie started to talk while still slightly trembling, until,

''I don't care what sort of blood you've got! Why would I want to attack Muggle-borns?'' Harry almost yelled feeling extremely frustrated.

''I've heard you hate those Muggles you live with,'' Ernie said swiftly.

''It's not possible to live with the Dursleys and not hate them, I'd like to see you try it,'' Harry said and Lucy had to completely agree with him. She was never actually introduced to them and after having two quick encounters with them she was in no hurry to officially meet them.

After that Harry glanced to his side and saw madam Pince giving him a stern glare and that made Harry leave the library. Lucy was about to follow him, until she realized she still had the book in her hands and had to go register it to Madam Pince or she would have her head. And of course Madam Pince took her sweet time coming to the counter.

After finally getting the book she realized that she had lost Harry. He could be anywhere by now. Then suddenly she heard Peeves annoying voice echoing in the halls,

''ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAACK!''

She quickly ran towards the voice and came upon Harry looking over the petrified body of the Hufflepuff student Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick who was floating above Justin. Both of their faces had identical shocked impressions on them.

Just then the hallway started to fill in with students and teachers alike. But as the lound noises were going on Professor McGonagall had to use her wand to set off aloud bang, which restored silence, and ordered everyone back into their classes.

''Caught in the act!'' Ernie yelled, his face stark white, pointing his finger dramatically at Harry. No one then understood his sudden clumsiness and he tripped over his feet and fell to the floor, except Lucy who was brushing her feet to dust the imaginary dust away from it as Ernie fell to the floor.

''That will do, Macmillan,'' Professor McGonagall said sharply to Earnie who was getting himself up from the dusty floor. Everyone still at the scene was staring at Justin's body and the floating Nick until Peeves decided that the scene was too quiet for his taste,

''Oh, Potter, you rotter, oh, what have you done, You're killing off' students, you think it's good fun…''

''That's enough Peeves!'' barked Professor McGonagall, and Peeves zoomed away backward, with his tongue out at Harry.

Justin was carried up to the hospital wing by Professor Flitwick and Professor Sinistra of the Astronomy department, but nobody seemed to know what to do for Nearly Headless Nick. In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along like a silent black hovercraft. During this Professor gave Lucy a stern galre indigating that she wasn't needn't here and that she should get back to her dormitory right now. This left Harry and Professor McGonagall alone together much to Lucy's dismay as she knew Harry was not behind this attack. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lucy got back to the Gryffindor dormitory and the twins were immediately asking for what took so long and that their next class would start soon. And so Lucy had no choice but to tell them what had just happened at the library and the hallway.

The twins of course still firmly believed in Harry's innocence but were wondering that was kind of creature would be strong enough to petrify a ghost who was already dead. What on earth was going on in this castle?

 **You guys have no idea what I've been through this summer. Seriously the work is like…arhg… I can't voice it right. I work morning shift and evening shift, I even had couple night shifts. I've been so tired after work that I haven't found the inspiration to write anything. But here's another chapter, hope you like it. And remember to review it keeps me writing.**

 **Love you all,**

 **Snow**


	15. Christmas

1\. Christmas

So as can be expected the news about Justin's and Nick's fate spread around the castle faster than a wild fire. Curiously, it was Nearly Headless Nick's fate that seemed to worry people most. What could possibly do that to a ghost? People asked each other; what terrible power could harm someone who was already dead? There was almost a stampede to book seats on the Hogwarts Express so that students could go home for Christmas.

And obviously now that everyone knew that Harry was the one founded from the scene everyone, even those who previously still believed Harry to be innocent, believed him to be the Slyhterin's heir and everyone started avoiding him like a plague. Except Ron and Hermione plus the Weasley's and Lucy.

Now the triplets of course wanted to make the most of the moment and started to joke around the castle about Harry's supposed involvement in the attacks. Like this day as Harry was walking down the corridors the triplets were walking ahead of him and they were yelling, loudly,

''Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, _seriously_ evil wizard coming through…'' George shouted as everyone turned to look and some even snickered at the scene. Percy of course highly disapproved their actions.

''It is not a laughing matter,'' he said coldly.

''Oh, get out of the way, Percy,'' Fred said.

''Exactly can't you see Harry's in a hurry,'' Lucy echoed as she gently pushed Percy to the side to make way to Harry, Ron and Hermione who were behind them.

''Yeah, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant,'' George said chortling.

But Ginny was also one who didn't find their antics amusing.

''Oh, don't,'' she wailed every time Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, or when George pretended to ward Harry off with a large clove of garlic when they met, or when Lucy was pretending to faint every time Harry was next to her.

And Harry actually didn't mind; it made him feel better that Fred, George and Lucy at least, thought the idea of his being Slytherin's heir being quite ludicrous. Of course Lucy also voiced this opinion one evening at the common room, making Harry feel loads better since someone actually told him that they didn't believe the rumors others were so eager to believe, proving to him that they were his true friends.

And so slowly the Christmas vacation started. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had suddenly informed the kids that they would spend the Christmas in Egypt with Bill. And as much as the kids wanted to see Bill they decided to decline and just spend the Christmas in Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione. And secretly Lucy was glad as now she didn't have to worry over Harry, who would be alone and unprotected during the holidays.

Percy also decided to stay in the school as he said the kids needed someone to watch over them and as he said this his pants suddenly fell to his ankles making him shriek and quickly pull them up. Lucy and Fred secretly gave George a set of low high fives for a job well done. And so Percy, who disapproved of what he termed their childish behavior, didn't spend much time in the Gryffindor common room. He also wanted to add that he was also staying over Christmas because it was his duty as a prefect to support the teachers during this troubled time. And after this comment his robes flew over his head and he had to struggle to get them off. This time it was Lucy who earned the high fives.

At last the term ended, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Harry found it peaceful, rather than gloomy, and enjoyed the fact that he, Hermione, Lucy and the Weasleys had the run of Gryffindor Tower, which meant they could play Exploding Snap loudly without bothering anyone, and practice dueling in private. Lucy kept losing terribly to the twins, who had decided to gang up on her as an early Christmas present. To this she loudly proclaimed to pay them back, but didn't know yet how.

And so the Christmas morning dawned, cold and white and Lucy quickly flew out of her bed to see a pile of presents at the foot of her bed. The first present she opened was from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who had given her the traditional Weasley jumper, this time in the color of scarlet red and she had a hunch someone had ratted the little information of her one day hair color change and Mrs. Weasley probably though it was slightly funny. From them she also got a box full of mini raspberry tarts which were her favorites and decided to hide them so that the twins wouldn't find them and eat them.

Second gift was from Ginny who had gotten her a new hairbrush. She must have remembered the time when Lucy had mentioned that her old one was slowly dying as her hair was so think, long and messy that the brushes couldn't take it. She had bought more brushes in the last five years that the rest of the Weasleys put together during the last ten years. To Ginny Lucy had bought a new diary, which she can use after her old was full.

Next was a gift from Percy which was just plain old parchment paper and some ink. A practical gift, but not very exciting. Just like Percy. To Percy Lucy buys every year the same thing as he seems to enjoy it, a few new quills and pitch black ink.

And the last gift was from the twins and it was huge. As she opened she couldn't help but to roll her eyes at it. It was about two gallons large jar that was full of different colored hairpins. One the side it read ' _Fred and George rock'_. It's a good thing that they had decided to get her a prank'ish' as a gift since she had gotten them a one too. She had gotten them similar robes they were usually wearing in school, but they were colored to be pink and purple, just like their robes were during Lucy's revenge. Except this time there wasn't any writing at the back.

And the Christmas dinner was of course amazing. The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read ' _Pinhead_ ,' kept asking them all what they were sniggering at.

After the marvelous dinner the triplets were so full they didn't even notice when Harry, Ron and Hermione had slipped away. The triplets just gathered their full stomachs and walked straight up to the Gryffindor tower and went immediately to bed feeling way too tired to even thinking of any pranks.


End file.
